Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah: His Personality and Politics 0195777832, 9780195777833

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QUAID-I-AZAM MOHAMMAD ALI JINNAH His Personality and His Politics

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Fronrfrpitu: Quaid -i·Aum Muhammad Ali linnah

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QUAID-I-AZAM MOHAMMAD ALI JINNAH His Personality and His Politics S. M. Burke an//d

Salim AL-Din Quraishi

Karachi

Oxford University Press Oxford

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New York 1997

Delhi

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Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford OX2 6DP

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Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bombay Calcutta Cape Town Dar cs Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madras Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi Paris Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto '"'" iwocifltetl eomp11nit1 in Berlin Ibadan

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Oxford is a trade mark of Oxford University Press

© Oxford University Press, 1997 All rights reserved. No pan of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re·sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

ISBN 0 19 577783 2

Printed in Pakistan at Challenger Paper Products, Kardchi. Published by Ameena Saiyid, Oxford University Press 5-Bangalore Town , Sharae Faisal P.O. Box 13033, Karachi-75350, Pakistan.

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CONTENTS ptige .

Acltnowletlgements

XI

PrefRee

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1. The Background The Birth of Indian Nationalism and the Hindu-Muslim Problem Hinduism and Islam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

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2. The First Thirty Years Ancestry, Birth and Education The Sad Homecoming and the Hard Road to Succ~ His Genius in Advocacy Entrance into Politics

32 42 44

48

3. The Quaid-i-Azam's Character and Political Style Integrity Independence of India, His Lifelong Passion His Sang-froid His Constitutionalism His Secular Politics Reserved but Correct

52 54 54 55 58 59

4. The Birth of Indian Nationalism and Muslim Nationalism India in 1906 The Birth of Indian Nationalism Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, the Father of Muslim Nationalism

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CONTENTS

The Aga Khan Delegation The Foundation of the Muslim League 5. On the Ladder to Leadership, 1906-1913 Idealists versus Realists The Quaid's First Congress, 1906 1907· 1913 6. Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity, 1914-1918 World War I The Lucknow Pact The War Conferences The Jinnah People's Memorial Hall

74 77

81 83 88

100 101 108 110

7. India in a Ferment, 1919-1923 Constitutional Developments The Quaid's Views on the Montagu-Chelmsford Report, the Rowlatt Bill and Khilafat Mahatma Gandhi's 'Himalayan Miscalculation' The Quaid-i-Azam's Response to the Rowlatt Act The Royal Proclamation and its Calming Effect The End of the Truce Jinnah and Gandhi's Respective Responses The Special Sessions of the Muslim League and the Congress at Calcutta Jinnah Resigns from the Home Rule League as well as from the Congress Non·Cooperation in Action Muslim Politics in the Doldrums Jinnah and Ruttie

114 116 118 120 121 123 126 127 129 132 139 140

8. Jinnah Resumes His Efforts to Bring About Hindu-Muslim Unity, 1924-1929 The Nature of Jinnah's Differences with Congress The All-India Muslim League's Fifteenth Session, Lahore, 24~25 May 1924 Jinnah's Triumphant Rerum to the Central Legislative Assembly The Delhi Muslim Proposals, 20 March 1927 Appointment of the Simon Commission

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143 144 146 149 150

CONTENTS

VII

152 154 157 158 160 164 166 168

The Muslim League Splits into Two Origin of the Nehru Committee The Nehru Report Jinnah and the Nehru Report The Burial of the Nehru Report The Legacy of the Nehru Report Jinnah's Fourteen Points Death of Ruttie, 20 February 1929 9 . The Round Table Conference and Jinnah's Self-Imposed Exile in England, 1930-1933 Lord Irwin's Goodwill for India Lord Irwin's Declaration of 31 October 1929 The Lahore Congress, 29-31 December 1929 The Civil Disobedience Movement The Simon Report The First Session of the Round Table Conference, 21 November 1930 to 19 January 1931 Presidential Address of Dr Muhammad Iqbal at the Allahabad Session of the All-India Muslim League, 29 December 1930 The Second Session of the Round Table Conference, 7 September 1931 to 1 December 1931 The Third Session of the Round Table Conference, 17 November to 24 December 1932 The 'Communal Award' Why the Quaid was not Invited to the: Third Session of the Round Table Conference Resumption and end of Civil Disobedience Movement by Congress and Gandhi's Resignation from the Congress Party Choudhary Rahmat Ali, 1897-1951 The Quaid's Self-In1posed Exile in England

10. The Quaid-i-Azam at the Helm, 1934-1939 The Quaid Resumes His Mission of Forging Hindu-Muslim Unity The H imalayan Odds Facing the Quaid · The Act of 1935 The Attitude of the Congress Toward the Reforms

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183 185 190 190 191

192 194 197

202 203 208 212

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Jinnah's Attitude Toward the Reforms and His Unceasing Efforts to Achieve Hindu-Muslim Unity The Quaid Defuses the Shahidganj Crisis The Twenty-Fourth Session of the All-India Muslim League, Bombay, 11-12 April 1936 The Muslim League Manifesto, 11 June 1937 Election Results Congress Spurns Jinnah's Olive Branch The Muslims Get a Taste of Hindu Rule Communal Rioting The Muslim Reaction to Congress Rule A Step Toward Pakistan World War II Indian Reaction to World War II

212 214 215 216 2 17 219 222 228 229 233 235 235

11. The Struggle for Pakistan, 1940-1946 The Pakistan Resolution The Quaid Defuses the Khaksar Crisis The Quaid-i-Azam's Further Advocacy of the Demand for Pakistan The Hindu Exponents of the Two Nation Doctrine The German Blitzkrieg and its Repercussions in India Twenty-Eighth Session of the Muslim League, Madras, 12- 15 April 1941 The Cripps Mission, 23 March to 12 April 1942 Gandhi's Quit India Rebellion The Muslim League Attitude Toward the Quit India Rebellion A Murderous Attack on the Quaid-i-Azam The Bengal Famine Wavell's Appointment as Viceroy The Jinnah-Khlzar Rift Gandhi Offers to Trade Non-Violence for a Declaration of Immediate Indian Independence Jinnah-Gandhi Negotiations, 9 -26 September 1944 The Simla Conference The Labour Party Takes Office in the United Kingdom Wavell's Breakdown Plan The Parliamentary Delegation

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254 258 259 264 266 267

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Election Results The Cabinet Mission Statement by the Cabinet Delegates and the Viceroy Issued in New Delhi on 16 May 1946 The Interim Government Intensification of the Civil War The London Conference, 3-6 December 1946 12. Pakistan Zindabad Attlee's Statement on New Indian Policy and Mountbatten's Appointment as Viceroy Congress Requests the British Government to Partition India The Opening Phase of Mountbatten's Viccroyalty Plan Balkan Developments in the North-West Frontier Province Proposal for a United Independent Bengal Plan Dominion Status The Plan of 3 June 1947 The Consitutional and Legal Formalities of Partition and Independence The Quaid-i-Azam's Wisdom in Preventing Mountbatten from Becoming Governor-General of Pakistan The Radcliffe Boundary Awards The Last Year The Quaid-i-Azam's Conception of the State of Pakistan The Quaid-i-Azam's Place in History

287 288 295 304 308 309

317 322 325 330 332 334 335 339 343

345 351 354 366 372

Bibliogrtiphy

385

Index

401

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Acknowledgements T he two authors most of all wish to thank Professor Burke's daughter, Mrs P. P. Cass. She not only diligently typed the script but also joined the authors in doing research. Her contribution to the production of this book is on a par with that of the authors. T hey next offer their thanks to Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada. He generously provided the authors with research material and stimulated them with lively exchange of views. They also express their gratitude to Professor Burke's former colleague in the Indian Civil Service, Mr Ronald H. Belcher, CMG, for ta.king the trouble t o read the typescript and offering valuable advice. Finally, they wish to express their warm appreciation for the encouragement and helpful suggestions which Salim AL-Din Quraishi's wife, Margarita, has continuously offered them. The division of labour between the two authors has been that Burke has written the text and Quraishi has done the research.

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Preface Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah was a luminary in three walks of life. He was one of India's leading legal practitioners; he was one of India's leading legislators; and he was one of India's leading politicians. But it is as a politician that he attained world stature and won a permanent place in history. He did not only win independence from colonial rule for an existing country, but performed the extraordinary feat of bringing an altogether new independent country into existence against seemingly impossible odds. And it is with this aspect of his life that our book principal.ly deals. We propose to leave his professional activities as a barrister to other pens, and to refer to his performance within the precincts of the central legislature only to the extent that it supplements and illustrates the main theme. The proponents of united India- the departing British and the followers of the mainly Hindu Indian National Congresshave written more massively and eloquently in support of their standpoint than have the Muslim Leaguers to explain the rationale for the creation of Pakistan. This has built up the \videly held misconception that Jinnah gratituously divided the Indian nation by introducing religion into politics. We hope to demonstrate that in fact the peoples and the regions of the subcontinent of India began to weld into a single nation only under the unifying influence of the British administration and the phenomenal growth of the contagious conceptions of democracy and freedom in the contemporary world. But they never convincingly achieved it. Also, that it was Gandhi, not Jinnah who first introduced religion into politics. At this stage, all we can reasonably ask of the reader is to suspend final judgement till he or she has examined the entire argument presented in these pages and to ponder over the following submissions. From the very beginning of their rule, British statesmen were aware that India probably could never manage to become: a single

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PREFACE

XIV

nation. In the last years of British fule, three possibilities competed with each other. The Indian National Congress wanted the whole of the British Indian Empire te be treated as a single nation; the Muslim League wished it to be partitioned into two independent states; and the British, while preferring to leave behind a united India, recognized the reality of provincial nationalism and left open the possibility that some provinces might opt for independence. Thus, the ultimate division of the empire into only two independent states was a compromise between the alternatives of one independent state or several independent states. When Queen Victoria assumed sovereignty over lndia, .John Bright in his speech on the India Bill in 1858 said, 'Does any man with the smallest glimmering of common sense believe that so great a country with its twenty different nations and twenty languages, can ever be bound up and consolidated into one compact and enduring empire? I believe such a thing to be utterly impossiblc:.'1 Not surprisingly, it was at the provincial level that the Act of 1919 first partly transferred power to Indian ministers. The Act of 1935 carried the process further and made the provinces administratively autonomous. The Indian National Congress themselves pleaded the cause of provincial nationalism in their resolution protesting against the proposal to partition Bengal. Rtsolution XIV of the Twentieth Session at Bombay on 26-28 December 1904 condemned Partition on the ground that it would result in 'the division of the Bengali nation into separate units'. When it became clear that Indian independence had become inevitable, the British began to favour transfer of power to a united India. This was due to two main reasons. First, this boon would serve as visible proof that British Imperialism had been good for India. Secondly, it was believed that a divided India would be less able to shield itself against the traditional threat from the north-west, which previously stemmed from the exp~nsionary imperial Russia and now from the rampant Communist USSR. At the same time, they could not disregard the existence of provincial nationalism. Consequently, British proposals for the actual transfer of powerthe Cripps Declaration, the Cabinet Mission Proposals and Prime Minister· Attlee's statement of 20 February 1947 that the British

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PREFACE

would definitely leave India by the end of June 1948-though biased in favour of a united lridia, all recognized the right of the provinces to opt for independence if that proved to be their ultimate choice. As to whether it was Gandhi or Jinnah who was more responsible for introducing religion into politics, we wish to point out that long before Jinnah started his campaign for a separate homeland for the Muslims, Gandhi himself had frankly proclaimed, 'I can say without the slightest hesitation, and yet in all humility, that those who say that religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion means'. 2 'Gandhiji,' noted a troubled Jawaharlal Nehru, 'indeed, was continuously laying stress on the religious and spiritual side of the movement. His religion was not dogmatic, but it did mean a definitely religious outlook on life, and the whole movement was strongly influenced by this and took a revivalist character so far as the masses were concerned.' 3 In spelling, place names such as Sind and Baluchistan, we have followed The Imperial Gazetteer of India, New and Revised edition published under the authority of the Government of India at Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1931.

S. M . Burke and Salim AL- Din Quraishi

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Record of an Interview between Rear-Admiral Viscount Mountbatten of Burma and Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah on 9 April 1947 I [Mountbatten) told him [Jinnah) that I regarded it as a very great tragedy that he should be trying to force me to give up the idea of a united India. I painted a picture of the greatness that India could achieve-four hundred mil.lion people of different races and creeds, all bound together by a central Union Government, with all the economic strength that would accrue to them from increased industrialization, playing a great pan in world affairs as the most progressive single entity in the Far East ... He said that nothing would have given him greater pleasure than to have seen such unity, and he entirely agreed that it was indeed tragic that the behaviour of the Hindus had made it impossible for the Muslims to share in this.•

Notes I.

2.

3. 4.

Quoted by Jinnah in his Presidential address at the Thirty·first Session of the All-India Muslim League at Ka.rachi in December 1943. M. K. Gandhi, An Autobiography or the Story of My F.xperimentJ With Truth, Penguin Books, p. 453. The autobiography containing this declaration by Gandhi was first published i.n India in two parts, Volume I in 1927 and Volume II i.n 1929. Jawaharlal Nehru, An Autobiography, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1985, p. 72. The Tranifer of Power, X, p. 164.

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CHAPTER 1

The Background The Birth of Indian Nationalism and the Hindu-Muslim Problem In order to comprehend and assess Quaid-i· Azam Mo hammad Ali Jinnah's political career fairly, it will be helpful first to elucidate certain forces which conditioned the development of his thinking and conduct. Hindu and Muslim nationalists are agreed on two important matters: First, that it was the administrative unity and Western education provided by the British rule in India that originated the feeling that the diverse peoples and regions of the subcontinent of India constituted a single nation. Secondly, that the ideal outcome of the Indian struggle for freedom would be the emergence of the British empire in India as a united, peaceful and strong independent country, and that the biggest obstacle to the achievem~nt of that shining goal was discord between the two major communities- the Hindus and the Muslims. That an all-India national feeling owed its birth to the British connection was acknowledged by the very first speaker on the first resolution at the inaugural session of the Indian National Congress at Bombay in 1885. Subramania Ayar, a Hindu delegate from Madras, declared that ' by a merciful dispensation of Providence' Britain had rescued India from centuries of external aggression and internal strife, and summed up the benefits of British rule 'in one remarkable fact, that for the first time in the history of the Indian populations there is to be held the phenomenon of national unity among them, of a sense of national existence'. 1 And in his presidential address at the Ninth Session of the All-India Muslim League at Lucknow in December 1916, Quaid-i-

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QUAID-1-AZAM MOHAMMAD ALI JINNAH

Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah similarly referred to the following 'two cardinal facts'. The first was that the British rule in India with its Western character and standards of administration ... has maintained, for many decades, unbroken peace and order in the land, administered evenhanded justice, brought the Indian mind· through a widespread system of Western education, into contact with the thought and ideals of the Wesr, and thus led to the birth of a great and living movement for the intellectual and moral regeneration of the people.

Secondly, there was ... the fact of the existence of a powerful unifying process- the most vital and interesting result of Western education in the countrywhich is cre;iting our of the diverse mass of race and creed a new India, fast growing into unity of thought, purpose and outlook, responsive to new appeals of territorial patriotis1n and nationality, stirring with new energy and aspiration and becoming daily more purposeful and eager to recover its birthright to direct its own affairs and govern itself. 2

In our view two factors were principally responsible for the frustration of the dream that the British empire in India would join the comity of independent nations as a single, powerful and respected member. The first was the inherent incompatibility of Hinduism and Islam, and the second, an accident of history, the incompatibility of temperament and style of leadership of Jinnah and Gandhi, the two controlling players in the final stages of the drama of India's struggle for freedom.

Hinduism and Islam It was natural that, in their 1rntation with British imperialism, Indian nationalists should have found it more soothing to ascribe all their misfortunes to their alien rulers rather than to the lack of unity in their own society. In truth, there are no two great religions more incompatible than Hinduism and Islam. Islam is the youngest of the great religions of the world. It is also the simplest and the most explicit.

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THE BACKGROUND

The sole requirement is belief in one all-powerful God, in Muhammad (PBUH) as His messenger, and in the Koran as the message. Muhammad (rsuH), of course, was not the first messenger of God. The first prophet was Adam, sent as soon as the world itself was created. Others followed from time to time, such as Abraham, Moses, and Christ. But Muhammad's (rBuH) message, being the last in time, is the final one, taking precedence over all the others. According to the poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal: 'The simple faith of Muhammad (PBUH) is based on two propositions-that God is One, and that Muhammad ( PBUH) is the last of the line of those holy men who have appeared from time to time in all countries and in all ages to guide mankind to the right ways of living'. 3 There is no caste system in Islam. All Muslims are supposed· to be equal and form a single brotherhood under God, transcending the barriers of race and geography. The word Islam means 'submission' (to the will of God) and Muslim means 'one who submits'. Muslims do not like to be described as Muhammadans because this might suggest they worship the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), who was not a saviour but just one through whom God revealed his message to the world. Belief in one living God is so strong that the making of images not only is forbidden, but is a cardinal sin. The Koran contains a record of Muhammad's (PBUH) utterances, as revealed to him by God, and collected into an authorized version after his demise. Hinduism on the other hand, is rooted in the ancient past and is not a religion at all in the usual sense of a faith having a prescribed dogma and scripture. Perhaps the best way of exploring its essence is to find out what it has meant to the leading Hindus of our time: 'Hinduism, as a faith, is vague, amorphous, manysided, all things to all men. It is hardly possible to define it, or indeed to say definitely whether it is a religion or not, in the usual sense of the word' (Nehru).4 'If I were asked to define the Hindu creed, I should simply say: Search after truth through non-violent means. A man may not believe in God and still call himself a Hindu. Hinduism is a relentless pursuit after truth.' Hinduism is 'the religion of truth. Truth is God. Denial of God we have known. Denial of truth we have not known ... ! believe in the Bible as I believe in the Gita. I regard all the great faiths of the world as equally true with my own' (Gandhi).5 However,

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QUAID-1-AZAM MOHAMMAD ALI JINNAH

'many eminent and undoubted Hindus say that non-violence as Gandhi understands it, is no essential part of the Hindu creed. We thus have truth left by itself as the distinguishing mark of Hinduism. That, of course, is no definition at all' (Nehru).6 Jawaharlal Nehru is not the only Hindu who rejects the Gandhian proposition linking Hinduism with non-violence. Swami Vivekananda asserts: 'Our Shastras say, you are a householder; if anybody slaps you once on your face, you must return it tenfold, otherwise you will be committing a sin'. 7 K. M. Panikkar thinks Indian vision has been obscured by an 'un-Indian wave of pacifism' and states that India rejected the creed of ahimsa when she refused to follow Gautama Buddha.8 Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan points out that Hindu society made room for Kshatriyas, a group dedicated to the use of force, and surmises that as a long as human nature is what it is, the use of force will be required. 9 Directly raising the question of what is the spirit of Hinduism, Radhakrishnan explains The spirit of science is not dogmatic certainty but the disinterested pursuit of truth, and Hinduism is infused by the same spirit... Fixed intellectual beliefs mark off one religion from another, but Hinduism sets itself no such limits. It is comprehensive and synthetic, seeking unity not in a common creed but in a common quest for truth. Hinduism is rhore a way of life than a form of thought. It insists not on religious conformity but on a spiritual and ethical outlook in life .. It is a fellowship of all who accept the law of right and earnestly seek for the truth. 'o Gandhi had said that in Hinduism there is 'room enough' for prophets such as Jesus, Muhammad (rsuH), Zoroaster, and Moses. 11 Consequently, Mrs Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit points out, 'Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Islam, Sikhism, and Christianity., have all helped enrich the fabric of India's spiritual life. Hinduism cannot be described as a particular system of thought. Rather it is a con1monwealth of systems: not a particular faith but a fellowship of faiths' .12 Radhakrishnan explains further In the long and diversiJied history of man's quest for realiry represented by Hinduism, the object which haunts the human soul as a presence at once all-embracing and infinite is envisaged in many different ways. The Hindus are said to adopt polytheism, monotheism, and pantheism as well as belief in demons, heroes, and ancestors. It is easy to find

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THE BACKGROUND

texts in support of each of these views. The cults of Siva and Sakti may have come down from the Indus people. Worship of trees, animals, rivers, and other cults associated with fertility ritual may have had the same origin, while the dark powers of the underworld, who are dreaded and propitiated, may be due to aboriginal sources. The Vedic Aryans contributed the higher gods comparable to the Olympians of the Greeks, like the Sky and the Earth, the Sun and the Fire. The Hindu religion deals with these different lines of thought and fuses them into a whole by means of its philosophical synthesis. 13 As a result of this tolerant attitude, Hinduism itself has become a mosaic of almost all the types and stages of religious aspiration and endeavour. It has adapted itself with infinite grace to every human need and it has not shrunk from the acceptance of every aspect of God conceived by man, and yet preserved its unity by interpreting the different historical forms as modes, emanations, or aspects of the Supreme. 14

Altogether the Hindu pantheon comprises some 350 million gods. Radhakrishnan says that all the gods stand for some aspect of the Supreme. 15 Because of its almost unlimited receptiveness, Hinduism has survived the onslaughts of other religions through the ages. Though in time it became laden with social abuses, its theory has a noble and attractive aspect. It does not enclose the mind with mandatory restrictions. But its unbounded toleration also deprives it of positiveness. Its followers lack any central theme to unite them into a single-minded homogeneous unit. They are like an army with no visible flag to protect. Hindu society stands internally divided not only by doctrinal disunity, which has been discussed, but also by an equally pervasive social disunity. Nehru called Hindu society 'anarchistic' .1 6 It subscribes to four principal castes and some three thousand subcastes. Members of one caste, however meritorious, cannot aspire to promotion to a higher rung, and the fresh convert to the Hindu faith simply remains outside the pale of the caste system, an outcaste and an untouchable. 'What is to be the caste of the convert?' asked B.R. Ambedkar, and ans\vered: 'According to the Hindus, for a person to belong to a caste he must be born in it. A convert is not born in a caste, therefore he belongs to no caste. ' 17 It is far easier to join the brotherhood of Islam. To be converted it is sufficient to proclaim the creed, 'There is no God but Allah;

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Muhammad (PBUH) is the messenger of Allah.' Islam thus does not uncompromisingly slam the door in the face of non-believers, who can enter the fold, if they so choose, and make all of humanity one big brotherhood. The sense of equality among the members of the brotherhood is visibly emphasized on congregational occasions. At the various daily prayers and the weekly Friday prayers, worshippers occupy places of their own choice without regard to anyone's worldly status, and at the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, Muslims from all over the world, rich and poor, belonging to different countries and races, wear identical flowing white robes. Though far less restrictive than Hinduism, Islam, of course, is not without a formidable barrier of its own. It classifies mankind into two mutually exclusive categories, Muslims and non-Muslims. The spiritual bond which holds all the Muslims together serves also to segregate them from all the other peoples on the face of the earth. 'The Believers are but one Brotherhood', declares the Koran. Accordingly, argued the poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal, 'there is only one mi/lat [community J confronting the Muslim community, that of the non-Muslims taken collectively',18 and Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah averred that Islam imposes a duty on its followers not to merge their identity and individuality in any alien society. Maulana Muhammad Ali, who was Gandhi's right -hand man during the civil disobedience movement of the early 1920s, had no compunction in stating publicily that 'however pure Mr Gandhi's character may be, he must appear to me from the point of view of religion inferior to any Mussulman, even though he be without character'. 19 Thus, forbidden by their respective faiths to merge into a single homogeneous society, Hindus and Muslims continued to exist side by side for several centuries as two distinct entities. The task before the modern Indian nationalists was to devise a political formula that would make the newly-planted Western conception of majority representative government acceptable to the Muslims who formed a substantial permanent minority.

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THE BACKGROUND

Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi Jinnah and Gandhi were both intensely patriotic. Gandhi, till the very end of his natural existence, and Jinnah, for most of his political life, yearned for a united India. A narration of their respective roles in the struggle for freedom belongs to the body of this book. At this stage we wish to investigate their personalities and styles of leadership in the hope that this will enable the reader to appreciate the ever-present fundamentals that kept these highly intelligent and responsible leaders apart, and made it impossible for them to present a united front to their alien rulers. Edward Thompson said that Gandhi was 'the greatest Indian since the days of Buddha'.20 And the poet Tagore had prophesied in Gandhi's lifetime, 'Perhaps he will not succeed. Perhaps he will fail as the Buddha failed and as Christ failed to wean men from their iniquities, but he \viii always be remembered as one who made his life a lesson for all ages to come.' 21 When Gandhi was assassinated in January 1948, the United Nations lowered its flag to half-mast. What was the secret of success of the insignificant looking half-naked Gandhi? Subhas Chandra Bose explains The asceticism of Gandhiji, his simple life, his vegetarian diet, his adherence to truth and his consequent fearlessness- all combined to give him a halo of saintliness. His Join -cloth was reminiscent of Christ, while his sitting posture at the time of lccruring was reminiscent of Buddha. Now all this was a tremendous asset to the Mahatma in compelling the attention and obedience of his countrymen ... A large and influential section of the intelligentsia was against hin1, but this opposition was gradually worn down through the enthusiastic support given by the masses ... In some parts of the country the Mahatma began to be worshipped as an Avatar ... 22 In 1922 when the writer was in prison, Indian warders in the service of the Prison's Department would refuse to believe that the Mahatma had been cast in prison by the British Government. They would say in all seriousness that since Gandhiji was a Mahatma, he could assume the shape of a bird and escape from prison any moment he liked.'·'

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Furthermore There is something in Mahatma Gandhi, which appeals to the mass of the Indian people. Born in another country he might have been a complete misfit. What, for instance, would he have done in a country like Russia or Germany or Italy? His doctrine of non -violence would have led him to the cross or to the mental hospital. In India it is different. His simple life, his vegetarian diet, his goat's milk, his day of silence every week, his habit of squatting on the floor instead of sitting on a chair, his loin-cloth-in fact everything connected with him-has marked him out as one of the eccentric Mahatmas of old and has brought him nearer to his people. Wherever he may go, even the poorest of the poor feels that he is a product of the Indian soil- bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh. When the Mahatma speaks, he does so in a language that they comprehend not in the language of Herbert Spencer and Edmund Burke, as for instance Sir Surendra Nath Banerji would have done, but in that of the Bh11g11v11d·Git11 and the R11m11y11n11. When he talks to them about Swaraj, he docs not dilate on the virtues of pro,~ncial autonomy or federation, he reminds them of the glories of Ramajya [the kingdom of King Rama of old]" and they understand. And when he talks of conquering through Jove and ahimsa [non-violence], they are reminded of Buddha and Mahavira and they accept him. 25

Mountbatten who presided over the transfer of power in India also found that Gandhi 'was not compared with some great statesman like Roosevelt or Churchill. They classified him simply in their minds with Muhammad and with Christ'. 26 Gandhi deliberately introduced religion into politics. In his own words T o see the universal and all-pervading Spirit of Truth face to face one must be able to love the meanest of creation as oneself. And a man who aspires after that cannot afford to keep out of any field of life. That is why my devotion to Truth has drawn me into the field of politics; and I can say without the slightest hesitation, and yet in all humility, that those who say that religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion means. 27

Again If I seem to take part in politics, it is only because politics today encircles us like the coils of a snake from which one cannot get out

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no matter how one tries. I wish to wrestle with the snake.. . I am trying to introduce religion into politics.28

In South Africa where he fought apartheid for over twenty years, he called his political technique satyagraha, in India he described it as non-co-operation. The term 'satyagraha' is composed of two words: 'sat' which means truth and 'agraha' which means firmness. Gandhi explained that this meant holding on to truth by truth-force or soul-force. 'In satyagraha physical force is forbidden even in the most favourable circumstances... there is not the remotest idea of injuring the opponent. Satyagraha postulates the conquest of the adversary by suffering in one's own person.'29 Annie Besant was of the opinion that 'Gandhi believes in suffering and he is not happy if he achieves his object through evolutionary methods. He wants to build character through suffering. That is not my way. He is the martyr type and believes more in suffering than in achievement. ' 30 Gandhi himself extolled suffering in these words Suffering is the mark of the human tribe. It is an eternal law. The mother suffers so that her child may live. Life comes out of death. The condition of wheat growing is that the seed grain should perish. No country has ever risen without being purified through the fire of suffering... It is impossible to do away with the law of suffering which is the one indispensable condition of our being. Progress is to be measured by the amount of suffering undergone ... the purer the suffering, the greater is the progress. 31

In an article 'The Doctrine of the Sword' he wrote I have ventured to place before India the ancient law of self-sacrifice. For satyagraha and its offshoots, non-cooperation and ci\~I resistance, are nothing but new names for the law of suffering. The rishis who discovered the law of non-violence in the midst of violence were greater geniuses than Newton. They were themselves greater warriors than Wellington.. . Non-violence in its dynan1ic condition means conscious suffering. It does nor mean meek submission to the ..,,;11 of the evil-doer, but it means the putting of one's whole soul against the will of the tyrant. Working under this law of our being, it is possible for a single individual to defy the whole might of an unjust empire to save his honour, his religion, his soul, and lay the foundation

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for that empire's fall or regeneration. And so I am not pleading for India to practice non-violence because it is weak. I want her to practice non-violence being conscious of her srrength and power.32

The technique of non-cooperation with the agencies of the state was designed to bring about the collapse of the government. His vision of independent India was a return to a system of self-sufficient village communities In our own civilization there naturally will be progress, rcrrogression , reforms, and reactions; but one effort is required, and that is to drive out Western civilization. All else will follow ... 33 Machinery has begun to desolate Europe. Ruination is now knocking at the English gates. Machinery is the chief symbol of modern civi.lization. I am convinced that it represents a great sin. u

And he glorified India's ancient past It was not that we did not know how to invent machinery, but our forefathers knew that, if we set our hearts after such things, we would become slaves and lose our moral fibre. They, therefore, after due deliberation, decided that we should only do what we could with our hands and feet. They saw that our real happiness and health consisted in a proper use of our hands and feet. They further reasoned that large cities were a snare and a useless encumbrance and that people would not be happy in them, that there would be gangs of thieves and robbers, prostitution and vice flourishing in them and that poor men would be robbed by rich men. They were, therefore, satisfied with small villages."

At another place he said, 'I hold that economic progress ... 1s antagonistic to real progress'. 36 When a patient asked for Gandh's advice, he wrote back, 'But you can expect nothing but Licensed murders from that most empirical of professions. Whenever I hear of your illness, I feel like shooting some doctor or other but my ahimsa comes in the way.'37 And hospitals he believed were 'institutions for propagating sin•.J8 It was in South Africa that the idea 'flashed' upon Gandhi that if he wanted to devote himself to the service of the community, he must relinquish the desire for children and wealth and live the life of a vanaprasth~f one retired from household

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cares. 39 And in 1906 he took the oath of brahamcharya which he defined as not only abstinence from sex but 'control of the senses in thought, word and deed'.4-0 He gave up drinking cow's milk because he had not the least doubt that milk diets make the brahamcharya vow 'difficult to observe'. 41 He had learnt that 'milk stimulated animal passion'. 42 Gandhi believed that he could not follow God unless he gave up all he had; words like non-possession 'gripped' him.• 3 During his voyage from South Africa to London in 1914, he argued with his friend and travelling companion, Mr Kallenback, that the latter's possession of binoculars was not in keeping with the ideal of simple living, and with Kallenback's consent threw them into the sea ... Gandhi said that he followed his 'inner voice'.•5 Nehru explained that Gandhiji has often acted almost by instinct; by long and close association with the masses he appears to have developed, as great popular leaders often do, a new sense which tells him how the mass feels, what it does and what it can do. He reacts to this instinctive feeling and fashions his actions accordingly, and later, for the benefit of his surprised and resentful colleagues, tries to clothe his decisions with reasons. This covering is often very inadequate.%

At another place Nehru stated that Gandhi's ... way of springing surprises upon us frightened me; there was something unknown about him which, in spite of the closest association for founecn years, I could not understand at all and which filled me with apprehension. He admitted the presence of this unknown element in him, and said that he himself could not answer for it or foretell what it might lead to. 47

This lack of a carefully worked out plan of action disconcerted his colleagues at some critical junctures. At its annual session at Nagpur in December 1920, the Indian National Congress at Gandhi's behest passed a resolution holding out the amazing promise of swarajya within one year by following a programme of non-cooperation with the British Government. Subhas Chandra Bose has written an account of his disappointing interview with Gandhi designed to understand the Mahatma's 'mind and purpose'.

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Bose had been successful in the competitive examination for the Indian Civil Service in England but had resigned his position and hurried back to India to participate in the national struggle. He landed at Bombay on 16 July 1921 and managed to secure an interview with Gandhi on the same day. He summed up the result as follo,vs What was to him a question of faith ...namely, that swaraj would be won within one year ... was by no means clear to me, and personally speaking, I was prepared to work for a much longer period. However, I had no other course but to feel thankful for what I had been able to learn after an hour's conversation. But though I tried to persuade myself at the time that there must have been a lack of understanding on my part, my reason told me clearly, again and again, that there was a deplorable lack of clarity in the plan which the Mahatma had formulated and that he himself did not have a clear idea of the successive stages of the campaign which would bring India to her cherished goal of freedom. 48

Bose plainly says that 'the promise of Swaraj within one year was not only unwise but childish. It made the Congress appear so foolish before all reasonable men. ' 49 Abul Kalam Azad who was president of the Indian National Congress when it passed the Quit India resolution in the summer of I 942, also tells us that while the resolution \Vas in the making he 'pressed' Gandhi 'to tell us what exactly would be the programme of resistance' but 'he had no clear idea'.50 Even some of the senior-most colleagues of the Mahatma did not accept his basic conceptions. For Gandhi non-violence was a creed. Nehru unequivocally stated, 'For us and for the National Congress as a whole the non-violent method was not, and could not be, a religion or an unchallengeable creed or dogma. It could only be a policy and a method promising certain results'. 51 Rajendra Prasad explained, ' We \Vere disarmed; we were unable to fight with arms, and not a few of us saw in Gandhiji's method a way out of our difficult position' .5 2 Azad too affirmed, 'For me nonviolence was a matter of policy, not of creed ... Our decision to fight non-violently was ... compelled by circumstances: .. If freedom could be obtained by fighting, we would certainly participate in the war.' 53

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Nehru also confessed, that he could not understand Gandhi's 'glorification of poverty ... for poverty seemed to me a hateful thing, to be fought and rooted out and not to be encouraged in any way•.s• Also, 'Few of us, I think, accepted Gandhiji's old ideas about machinery and modem civilization ... Certainly most of us were not prepared to reject the achievements of modern civilization... Personally, I have always felt attracted toward big machinery and fast travelling. •ss Gandhi's observation with regard to the terrible earthquake in Bihar in January 1934, deeply shocked even his most ardent admirers. 'It is an ennobling· thing,' the Mahatma wrote, 'for me to guess that the Bihar disturbance is due to the sin of untouchability.' But he made no reply to the poet Tagore's question why God had chastised so many innocent children in Bihar, not a few harijans (Untouchables) among them?s6 And Nehru confessed that he had read Gandhi's 'staggering remark' with a 'great shock' and thought that 'anything more opposed to the scientific outlook it would be difficult to imagine'. 57 'How came we to associate ourselves with Gandhiji politically, and to become, in many instances, his devoted followers?' Nehru mused on one occasion, 'Personality is an undefinable thing, a strange force that has power over the soul of men'. ss There was 'a waning and waxing of Gandhi's popularity among the intelligentsia' but 'there has been no going back in popularity so far as the masses are concerned. There has been a progressive increase in his popularity.'s9 Gandhi's stress was never on the intellectual approach to a problem but on character and piety. He did succeed amazingly in giving backbone and character to the Indian people. It was this extraordinary stiffening up of the masses that filled us with confidence. A demoralized, backward, and broken up people suddenly straightened their backs and lifted their heads. •0

Gandhi's fads endeared him to the masses because they were Indian fads conforming to the country's ancient culture. To his Westernized colleagues they were a source of some amusement, and Nehru recorded in his autobiography that they would halfhumorously say that after independence had been achieved these fads must not be encouraged. 61

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But, whether they agreed with him or not, they could not dispense with him while the struggle for freedom was continuing for 'without him where was the struggle, where was Civil Disobedience and Satyagraha? He was part of the living movement; indeed he was the movement itself. ' 62 Even to many of the Mahatma's admirers some of his own actions seemed to conflict with his ideal of non-violence. During the Boer War and the. Zulu Rebellion he sided with the British and organized an ambulance corps during the former and a stretcher· bearer company during the latter with the title of Sergeant Major. During World War I he volunteered to work as a recruiting officer and tells us the people used to ask him, 'You are a votary of ahimsa, bow can you ask us to take arms?' 63 He also issued leaflets in which he argued that enlistment in the armed forces offered the recruits 'a golden opportunity' to learn the use of arms.64 He was also criticized for those of his fasts which were not for self-purification or to atone for the sins of others, but were undertaken to get his own way in political causes. It was pointed out that they were a form of coercion inconsistent with his commitment to non-violence. His explanation was that Those who have to bring about radical changes in human conditions and surroundings cannot do so except by raising ferment in society. There arc only rwo methods of doing this- violence and non-violence. Non-violent pressure exerted though self-suffering by fasting ...touches and strengthens the moral fibre of those against whom it is directed.65

Gandhi certainly was a unique leader. To kindle self-respect and a longing for freedom in the slumbering masses was an extraordinary achievement. The Hindus had been ruled for some 800 years by the Muslims, and for about 100 years by the British. Only a Gandhi could rouse them. The liberal leader Gokhale said Gandhi could 'mould heroes out of common clay'. The Mahatma instilled pride, courage and hope into the minds of India's poor and made them independence conscious. Poverty no longer was a mark of inferiority; going to prison in the national cause became a signal honour. He eroded the fear of the foreign government in the masses thus \veakening one important element of its control over India's millions. By shaking the foundation of imperialism in India, he certainly hastened the freedom of the country for the benefit of Hindus and Muslims alike.

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The Mahatma was also the national movement's greatest propaganda asset. His lifestyle, mode of dress, philosophy and political technique were so utterly different from those of all other leaders of world stature that he became a magnet for writers, journalists, photographers and visitors from all over the globe. By becoming world-famous he gave the Indian problem a world dimension. His utter commitment to non-violence fascinated the Western world which had suffered two devastating wars; perhaps the ancient East did have a message for the materialistic West. Nevertheless, it is amply clear that the Mahatma's leadership was Hindu in character and unsuited to cure Hindu-Muslim discord which was India's greatest problem and ultimately resulted in the subcontinent's division into the two countries of India and Pakistan. Adherence to non-violence under all circumstances was not consistent with the Islamic doctrine that the faithful must fight in a just cause and would be rewarded in the hereafter should they perish in the line of duty. Gandhi himself was not unaware that non-violence was a purely Hindu doctrine; 'if ahimsa (non-violence] disappears, Hindu religion disappears', he warned.66 Islam also does not glorify poverty. It permits the accumulation of wealth though it provides for its equitable distribution by laws of inheritance and charity. The situation in India called for a practical political solution. It demanded recognition that the Westminster type of parliamentary democracy pure and simple would mean permanent Hindu majority rule, and that Muslim fears could be allayed only if the Constitution contained sufficient safeguards for them to feel that they would be free to pursue their own culture and religion and would have an effective share in the government and administration of the country. This was by no means an impossible achievement. The Hindu community did not lack leaders of the highest calibre who were capable of reaching an agreement with Muslims on mutually acceptable terms. With the co-operation of one of them- Bal Gangadhar Tilak-Jinnah actually brought about the CongressMuslim League Lucknow Pact in 1916. This was of course before Gandhi took control of the Congress in 1920. Under the Lucknow Pact the Congress had recognized that Hindus and Muslims were two separate political entities and Muslim rights needed

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constitutional protection if the two communities were to inhabit a common independent country. With another universally respected Hindu leader-Gopal Krishna Gokhale-Jinnah enjoyed a close relationship based on a common political outlook and mutual respect. With a third-Chitta Ranjan Das- Jinnah could have come to terms because Das was a practical politician willing to allay Muslim fears by allowing them constitutional concessions. But providence had decided that there must be a Muslim homeland called Pakistan. It therefore decreed that Jinnah's opponent in the decisive political duel in the Inclian independence movement should be the otherworldly Mahatma Gandhi and not a realistic Hindu politician. So the important question for us to examine is why Gandhi and Jinnah failed to reach an understanding with each other. The short answer is that there was hardly any meeting ground between them. Their personalities and tactics were poles apart. Gandhi was a visionary throwback to ancient India; Jinnah was an utterly Westernized practical politician. Jinnah wore English suits of the finest cut and quality. Even after he had adopted national dress, his clothes were fashionable and elegant. He lived in a princely residence. He had a large income from his legal practice and he was a careful investor and accumulated a goodly nest-egg. When some members of the Muslim League advised him to travel third-class on the railway just as Gandhi did, he angrily said, 'Do not dictate to me what I should do or should not do. It is not your money I am spending, and I shall live and act as I choose.'67 He had no compunction in admitting publicly that English was 'the only language in which I can make no mistake' .68 Romain Rolland, whom Gandhi visited in Villeneuve , Switzerland in December 1931 , recalled The little man, bespectacled and toothless, was wrapped in his white burnoose, but his legs, thin as a heron's stilts, were bare. His shaven head with its few coarse hairs was uncovered and wet with rain. He came to me with a dry laugh, his mouth open, like a good dog panting, and flinging an arm around me leaned his cheek against my shoulder. I felt his grizzled head against my check. It was, I amuse myself thinking, the kiss of St Dominic and St Francis.••

Beverley Nichols,

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called on Jinnah in D ecember 1943,

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said of him that he was ... tall, thin, and elegant, with a monocle on a grey silk cord, and a stiff white collar which he wears in the. hottest weather. He suggests a gentleman of Spain, a diplomat of the old school; one used to sec his like sitting in the window of the St Jamcs's Club, sipping Contrexeville while he read Le Temps, which was propped against a Queen Anne toast-rack stacked with toast Mclba.70

As to the quality of Jinnah's politics, Nichols concluded that 'the difference between Jinnah and the typical Hindu politician was the difference between a surgeon and a witch doctor' .71 Jinnah believed that Islam is a modern religion and that its principles 'are as applicable in actual life as they were 1,300 years ago. Islam and its idealism have taught us democracy. It has taught equality of man, justice and fairplay to everybody.' 72 Also If Pakistan is to play its proper role in the world to which its size, manpower and resources entitle it, it must develop industrial potential side by side with its agriculture and give its economy an industrial bias. By industrializing our State, we shall decrease our dependence on the outside world for necessities of life, we will give more employment to our people and will also increase the resources of the State. 73

With regard to democracy, Jinnah said that it ... is alien to the Hindu society. I do not want to show any disrespect to any other sociecy but the Hindu society is caste-ridden and castebound. The Untouchables have no place socially, economically or any way at all. Democracy is in the blood of the Muslims who look upon complete equality of manhood ... Mussulmans believe in fraternity, equality and liberty.74

Gandhi's conception of democracy, on the other hand, like everything else about him, was utterly unconventional. Nehru described it in these words Gandhiji's conception of democracy has nothing to do with numbers or majority or representation in the ordinary sense. It is based on service and sacrifice, and it uses moral pressure ... True democracy is not inconsistent with a few persons representing the spirit, the hope, and the aspirations of those whom they claim to represent."

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He called the British Parliament a prostitute 'under the control of ministers who change from time to time ... Today it is under Mr Asquith, tomorrow µoder Mr Balfour and the day after it will be somebody else.'76 Jinnah parted company with Gandhi on the issue of non-cooperation at the annual Congress Session at Nagpur in December 1920. Congress first adopted the non-cooperation resolution at a special session at Calcutta in September 1920 demanding the preservation of the territorial and spiritual status of the Sultan of Turkey and retribution for the martial law excesses in the Punjab. 77 Jinnah was not opposed to non-cooperation in principle. At Calcutta he supported a motion by Bipin Chandra Pal to postpone the launching of the movement. 'Make preparation,' Jinnah advised, 'have your national schools and a court of arbitration. Find out in what other directions you are able to practice non-cooperation. When you have understood the whole situation you could begin to practice led by the best brains amongst you.' Speaking at the sixth anniversary of the death of Gokhale, Jinnah said on 19 February 1921 that ... he was convinced in his mind that the programme of Mahatma Gandhi for whom he had great respect and admiration was taking them to a wrong channel. .. what they wanted was a real political movement based on real political principles ... he could not understand why they should not go to the Council and fight face to face with the bureaucrats. He said they were not proceeding according to the constitutional methods ... If they were going to regulate everything in their country by the doctrine of non -violence he was afraid they were forgetting human nature. They were forgetting that they were human beings and not saints .. . Mr Gandhi's programme was based on soul force and it was an essentially spiritual movement ... He said that it was not a political programme though it had for its object the political goal of the country. 78

Indeed, given Indian mob mentality, it was unrealistic to expect that the non-cooperation movement would remain non-violent. Gandhi launched the first non-cooperation movement on 1 August 1920 and stopped it after an incident at Chauri Chaura in the United Provinces on 5 February 1922. T\venty-one policemen and a police inspector had taken shelter in a building, but the

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THE BACKGROUND

mob set fire to it and hacked to death all the members of the police force when they tried to e.scape. On 16 February 1922 the Mahatma wrote in his organ Young India, 'God spoke clearly through Chauri Chaura ... Non-violent non-cooperation can only succeed when they have succeeded in attaining control over the hooligan of lndia'. 79 Needless to say this impossible condition was never achieved. But this did not stop Gandhi from launching the non-cooperation movement whenever he thought it fit to do so. His most successful campaign was the famous salt march in the spring of 1930. On that occasion he had personally led a . band of dedicated followers from his ashram and defied the government monopoly of salt by making salt from sea water at Dandi on 6 April. After mastermjnding the Quit India resolution in August 1942, he was asked in an interview what would happen if the Muslims did not accept Hindu rule. He said I have not asked the British to hand over India to the Congress or to the Hindus. Let them entrust India to God or, in modem parlance, to anarchy. Then all the parties will fight one another like dogs, or will, when real responsibility faces them , come to a reasonable agreement. I shall expect non-violence to arise out of that chaos.80

Not surprisingly, Jinnah blamed Gandhi for turning Congress into a Hindu body I have no hesitation in saying that it is Mr Gandhi who is destroying the ideal with which Congress was started. He is the one man responsible for turning the Congress into an instrument for the revival of Hinduism. His ideal is to revive the Hindu religion and establish Hindu Raj in this country, and he is utilizing the Congress to further this object. 81

Nehru said much the same thing Gandhiji, indeed, was continua.Uy laying stress on the religious and spiritual side of the movement. His religion was not dogmatic, but it did mean a definitely religious outlook on life and the whole movement was strongly influenced by this and took on a revivalist character so far as the masses were concerned. 82

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'I am a very peculiarly constituted person', confessed Jinnah, 'I am guided by cold-blooded reason, logic and judicial training.'83 At another place he said, 'I am essentially a practical man, I have been in practical politics for over quarter of a century'.84 And he protested in a letter to Gandhi, 'All your thoughts and actions are guided by "inner voice". You have very little concern with realities, or what might be termed, by an ordinary mortal, "practical politics" :ss Everyone knew that Gandhi was the supremo of the Congress party. But when negotiating he often nonplussed the opposite party by declining to admit that he was a spokesman for the Congress. He took advantage of the fact that since 1934 he had held no office in the Congress organization and from October of that year had ceased to be even an ordinary member of the party. That his formal resignation was a mere subterfuge was lost on no one. As R. Coupland has pointed out, Gandhi exercised 'virtual sovereignty' over 'the operation of the Congress constitution' and despite his resignation often attended the meetings of the Working Committee and took a leading part in the discussions of the AICC and the will of the Congress was 'almost always his in the last resort'. Thus, Gandhi was, 'to put it plainly, a dictator' who supervised and, with rare exceptions imposed his will on the operation of the Congress and at a crisis, took 'sole command of it'. Nehru described Gandhi's status as a kind of permanent 'super· President'. 86 Of the 'rare occasions' on which the Mahatma's colleagues dared to differ from him we cite the following three well-known ones: first, when C. R. Das and Motilal Nehru decided to enter the legislature and founded the Swaraj party for that purpose; second, when during World War II the Working Committee of the Congress in the summer of 1940 felt ' unable to go the full length with Gandhiji' on the ideal of non-violence and offered to 'throw its full weight' behind the war effort provided the British Government promised complete independence to India and as an immediate step toward it constituted a provisional National Government at the centre; third, when Congress agreed to the partition of the British Empire in India into the two independent states of India and Pakistan. We will have more to say on these episodes in the pages that follow.

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THE BACKGROUND

Jinnah who went by the book, found it impossible to come to terms with the unrealistic credentials which the Mahanna claimed for himself. This was amply brought out in the course of their well-known parleys from 9 to 27 September 1944. At their very first meeting Gandhi gave notice that he was negotiating in his 'individual capacity'. In his letter of l 0 September Jinnah protested With reference to our talk yesterday [9 September} I understood from you that you had come to discuss a Hindu-Muslim settlement with me in your individual capacity, and not in any representative character or capacity, on behalf of Hindus or the Congress; nor had you any authority to do so. I naturally pointed out to you that 'there must be someone on the other side with authority holding a representative status with whom I can negotiate and, if possible, come to a settlement of the Hindu Muslim question, and that for the position you had adopted there was no precedent, and that this raises great difficulties in my way. As you know, I can only speak on behalf of Muslim India and the All-India Muslim League, as the President of the organization which I represent, and as such I am subject to and governed by its constitution, rules and regulations. I think you realize and will admit that a settlement of the Hindu Muslim question is the foremost and major hurdle, and unless representatives of these two nations put their heads together, how is one to make any headway with it?" 7

Gandhi in his reply on the following day contented himself by simply saying, 'I have stated publicly that I am approaching you as an individual'. When Gandhi said that he aspired to represent all the inhabitants of India, Jinnah wrote that he could not accept that claim and went on It is quite clear that you represent nobody else but Hindus, and as long as you do not realize your true position and realities, it is very difficult for me to argue with you, and it becon1es still more difficult to persuade you, and hope to convert you to the realities and the actual conditions prevailing in India today.

But Gandhi persisted: 'Why can you not accept my statement that I aspire to represent all sections that compose the peoples of India? Do you not aspire? Should not every Indian? That the aspiration may never be realized is beside the point.'

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In his last letter Jinnah summed up his frustration in the following terms When you arrived here and told me that you were approaching me in your individual capacity, I at once made it clear and informed you, both in our talks and in my letters, that the position you had taken up had no precedent for it, and further that it was not possible to negotiate and reach an agreement, unless both parties were fully represented. For it is a one-sided business, as it will not be binding upon any organization in any sense whatever, but you would as an individual only recommend it, if any agreement is reached, to the Congress and the country, whereas it will be binding upon me as the President of the Muslim League. I cannot accept this position. I hope you do see the unfairness and the great disadvantage to me, and it is so simple and elementary for any one to understand. 88

At a later date Jinnah again complained about the difficulty of doing business with Gandhi When it suits him (Gandhi), he represents nobody, he can talk in an individual capacity; he is not even a four-anna member of the Congress; he undertakes fasts to decide the political issue; he reduces himself to zero and consults his inner voice; yet when it suits him, he is the supreme dictator of the Congress! He thinks he represents the whole of India. Mr Gandhi is an enigma ... How can we come to a settlement with him? 89

Gandhi also baffled the international community by pressing it to accept the non-violent way as the panacea for its conflicts. He advised the Czechs to offer Hitler unarmed resistance.90 His message to the Jews 'the Untouchables of Christianity' was the same I am convinced that if someone with courage and vision can arise among them to lead them in non-violent action, the winter of their despair can, in the twinkling of an eye, be turned into the summer of hope. And what has today become a degrading man -hunt can be turned into a calm and determined stand offered by unarmed men and women, possessing the strength of suffering given to them by Jehovah. It will then be a truly religious resistance offered against the godless fury of dehumanized man.91

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THE BACKGROUND

The Mahatma wrote to Hitler on 23 July 1939 appealing to him to prevent a war which threatened to reduce humanity to the condition of savages. 92 And he wrote again on 24 December 1940 asking Hitler to stop the war and refer the issues at stake to an international tribunal. 93 In an article in the Harijan of 6 July 1940, Gandhi appealed to 'every Briton' to lay down their arms and let Hitler and Mussolini take possession of their beautiful island. If 'these gentlemen' choose to occupy British homes 'you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourself, man, woman and child, to be slaughtered but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them.'94 After issuing another appeal to the British to oppose Hitler with spiritual force, Gandhi met the viceroy, Lord Linlithgow, and pressed him to accept his point of view and communicate it to the British Government. Linlithgow was so taken aback that he forgot the usual courtesies to say goodbye to the caller and to ring the bell for an ADC to escort him to his motor car. 9' Earlier in 1919 when war had broken out between British India and Afghanistan, Gandhi had advised the British Government not to fight the tribesmen but to win them over by non-violence. However, at his prayer meeting on 29 October 1947, he supported Nehru's action in sending troops to fight the tribesmen in Kashrnir.96 With regard to resisting the tribesmen of North-West India, Gandhi had already explained more explicitly in 1916 that All you want to do is to train any army of strictly non-violent men who would offer themselves as willing sacrifices to the fury of the tribesmen and over whose corpses these tribesmen must tread before entering the gates of India. But I am sure that these chivalrous men would hate to strike and kill such non-resisting Saryagrahis and their stout hearts would, therefore easily succumb to the mighty powers of truth and love. 97

A few hours before his death, Gandhi was asked by a journalist ' How would you meet the atom bomb .. .with non-violence?' He replied, 'I will come out in the open and let the pilot see I have not a trace of evil against him. The pilot will not see our fuces from his great height, I know. But the longing in our hearcsthat he will not come to harm-would reach up to him and his eyes would be opened.' 98

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Our purpose in discussing the extraordinary aspects of Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy and political tactics is not to question his saintliness nor to deny his status as the most venerated Hindu of modern times. But this book is not on the lofty subjects of religion and ethics. It is on the down -to-earth subject of politics and we needed to explain our view that Gandhi was not a practical politician and that he and not Jinnah was really responsible for wrecking the chances of Hindu-Muslim unity. This will become increasingly clear as our story proceeds. At this stage we wish to illustrate our view by briefly referring to two episodes during which Jinnah and Gandhi each was able to unite Hindus and Muslims in a common cause. Jinnah was the driving force behind the making of the Lucknow Pact between the Congress and the Muslim League and Gandhi for bringing together the two communities under his flag four years later to fight the cause of Khilafat.99 The Lucknow Pact entered into by the Congress and Muslim League parties at Lucknow in December 1916 was a joint demand addressed to the British Government for the immediate grant of substantial steps toward the ultimate goal of full self-govemment.100 It was the fruit mainly of the joint efforts of Jinnah and Tilak as we have already mentioned. Jinnah explained that though Tilak 'was known in his earlier days to be a communalist...developed and showed broader and greater national outlook as he gained experience ... (he] played a very important part in bringing about Hindu-Muslim unity which ultimately resulted in the Lucknow Pact in 1916 ... [Tilak] was a practical politician•. 101 Tilak had said, 'I have great respect and admiration for Gandhiji, but I do not like his politics. If he would retire to the Himalayas and give up politics, I would send him fresh flowers from Bombay every day because of my respect for him. 102 Romain Rolland who has written a sympathetic book on Gandhi's philosophy thinks that if Tilak had lived, Gandhi would have remained only the religious leader of the movement. 103 Tilak's death, therefore, was to be regretted 'not only' for Tilak's sake but for India's and even Gandhi's. 1°' The pressure exerted by the Lucknow Pact was one of the main factors \vhich caused Secretary of State Montagu to announce in the House of Commons on 20 August 1917 that the policy

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of His Majesty's Government was 'that of the increasing association of Indians in every branch of the administration and the gradual development of self-governing institutions with a view to the progressive realization of responsible government in India'. This promise was followed by the reforms Act of 1919 which while falling tar short of Indian expectations, for the first time transferred portfolios of some welfare departments to Indian ministers at the provincial level. Had the spirit of the Lucknow Pact endured, there is every reason to believe that funher advances toward independence would have been extracted and the fusion of Hindus and Muslims into one nation would have become a real possibility. But Gandhi discarded constitutional methods and resorted to non-cooperation as the weapon both for the Khilafat cause of preserving the spiritual and territorial status of the Sultan of Turkey and for achieving redress for the Punjab martial law atrocities of 1919. This made the Indian political movement more emotional than rational, and cool-headed constitutional-minded leaders like Jinnah were eclipsed. The Mahatma's philosophy of mixing religion with politics dismayed some prominent nationalists who stood for a united India. One such person was Muhammad Ali Cureem Chagla, a successful barrister of Bombay who after Independence became Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, India's ambassador to the USA, and a member of the central Cabinet. He was originally a colleague of Jinnah in the Muslim League and explains that he parted company with Jinnah as soon as he became communalrninded and started his two-nation theory. 105 But Chagla makes it plain that it was Gandhi who was really responsible for transforming the secular character of the Muslim League ... the alliance between Mahatma Gandhi and the Khilafatists considerably accenruated the communal and religious aspects of Indian public life. Gandhiji was essentially a religious man, and it is very natural that he should feel that he could bring about unity on the basis of religion . As I have already stated, as soon as the Khilafat cause disappeared from the picrure, the Khilafatists went back to their original fanatical and religious outlook on life. It also resulted in a great set-back both for Jinnah and men like him and for the Muslim League, which was working on secular lines.I°"

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QUAID· l·AZAM MOHAMMAD ALI JINNAH

It remains for us to explain our observations with regard to Gokhale and Das. Gokhale, 107 like Jinnah, regarded Hindu-Muslim unity of paramount importance. He said of Jinnah, 'He has true stuff in him, and that freedom from all sectarian prejudice which will make him the best ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity'. 103 And Jinnah owned that it was his one ambition to become the Muslim Gokhale.1 09 At a condolence meeting in Bombay in May 1915 Jinnah recalled that Gokhale 'was respected by the Muhammedans and the Hindus alike and trusted by both'. 110 At a later date, Jinnah recalled that Gokhale had 'championed the cause of the Mussulmans' by supporting their demand for separate electorates in 1907 in these words Confronted by an overwhelming Hindu majority, Muslims arc naturally afraid that release from the British yoke might in their case mean enslavement to the Hindus. (This is not a fear to be ridiculed.) Were the Hindus similarly situated as are the Muslims in regard to numbers and other things, would they not have entertained similar misgivings? We would undoubted have felt the same fears and adopted the identical policy which the Muslims arc adopting today. 11 1

Das, another 'practical politician',112 also believed in the necessity of Hindu-Muslim unity based on a sensible political pact. To that end he forged the Bengal Pact and defended it in words which echoed Jinnah's repeated statement to the same effect So long as Hindus and Mohamedans do not unite, Swaraj will be an impossibility, and will always remain a theme of impractical fancy . .. To think that the two communities will merge their respective inclividuality and make up a new community is inconceivable. And, as I have already said on several occasions, they can only unite by a federation of the two communities based on sacrifice, mutual 'give and take' and understanding of each other's interests. 11 ~

Azad has appreciatively commented on the Bengal Pact In Bengal Muslims were the majority community but for various reasons they were educationally and politically backward. They had hardly any place in public life or Government service... Das was a great realist .. . He , therefore, made a declaration which took not only Bengal but India by surprise. He announced that when Congress

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THE BACKGROUND

secured the reins of office in Bengal, it would reserve 60 per cent of all new appointments for Muslims till such time as they achieved proper representation according to population. He went even further to reserve 80 per cent of the new appointments on similar terms ... Many of the Congress leaders violently opposed it.. . I am convinced that if he had not died a premature death, he would have created a new atmosphere in the country. It is a matter of regret that after he died, some of his followers assailed his position and the declaration was repudiated. The result was that the Muslims of Bengal moved away from the Congress and the first seeds of partition were sown.'" And who was the foremost critic of Das's Pact? It was none other than Mahatma Gandhi. He contributed an article to the 9 July 1925 issue of Young India, le~ than a month after Das's death. 115 The caption was 'The Science of Surrender'. 'Justice might have been satisfied,' Gandhi complained, 'if Deshabandhu 116 had not filled certain posts with Mussulmans, but he went out of his way to anticipate Mussulman wishes and placate Mussulman sentiment.' And he pronounced that it was Das's 'sensitiveness to placate them that hastened his death'. Das also held the same view as Jinnah on two other imponant matters. First, he acknowledged that the Westminster type of Parliamentary system pure and simple was not suited to Indian conditions. In his address on the self-government resolution at the 1917 Congress session he declared, 'I want the power to build my own constitution in a way which is suited to this country'. 117 Secondly, like Jinnah, Das favoured council entry and in 1923 founded the Swaraj Party in cooperation with Motilal Nehru to carry on the fight for freedom from inside the legislature. Gandhi who had opposed the move, went into virtual political exile till the Calcutta Congress of December 1928 when, in the aftermath of the appointment of the Simon Commission, India once more had an important all-India issue to pursue and the Congress party needed the weight of the masses to back up its demands.

Notes 1. 2.

R. Coupland, The Iniiiiin Problem, 1833-1935, p. 23. Syed Sbarifuddin l'inada, The Collected Worh of Q;taiii·e·Azam Moliammaii Ali ]inniih, Volume I, p. 191. Hcncefo"h referred to as Collecttii Works.

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6.

7.

8.

9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35.

QUAID·l·AZAM MOHAMMAD ALI JINNAH

'Sham loo', ed., Speeches and Statements of I1Jhal, p. I J 7. Jawaharlal Nehru, Discovery of Indit1, p. 63. Quoted by S. Radhakrishnan, Ellltern Religions 11nd Western Tho,.ght, pp. 312·3 . Radhakrishnan, President of India from 1962-1967, had earlier been Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at the Universiry of Oxford. Nehru, Discovery of Indi11, op. cit., pp. 13· 14. See also, Frank Moraes's article, 'Gandhi Ten Years After' in Foreign Ajft1irs of January 1958. Moraes observes that Gandhi's effon to equate non-violence with Hinduism was 'vigorously contested by many Hindus who cited Krishna's address to Arjuna in the Bh111Plld·Git11 urging the latter to play his pan in the destruction of the enemy in war'. Quoted by Sinha, Indit1n Independence in Perspective, p. 109. K. M. Panikkar, India and the lndit1n Ocet1n, p. 16. S. Radhakrishnan, The Hindu View of Life, p. 78. S. Radhakrishnan, 'Hinduism and the West', in Modern Indit1 and the West, ed., L.S.S. O'Malley, p . 339. M. K. Gandhi, Tr11th is God, p. 61. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, The E•olution of Indit1, p. 6. Mrs Pandit, sister of Jawaharlal Nehru, was India's ambassador to the USSR and the USA. S. Radhakrishnan, ' Hinduism', in the Legacy of India, ed., G. T . Garratt, p. 268. S. Radhak.rishnan, E11stern Religions 11nd Western Thought, op.cit., p. 313. S. Radhakrishnan, 'Hinduism', op. cit., p. 276. Quoted by Tibor Mende, Nehru: Converst1tions on Indit1 t1nd World Affairs, p. 34. B. R. Ambedkar, Paltistt1n or the Partition of India, p. 119. 'Shamloo', ed., Speeches 11nd St11tements of l1Jh11I, op.cit., p. 234. B. R. Ambedkar, Paltist11n or the Partition of India, op.cit., p. 196. H.S.L., Polak, H. N. Brailsford and Lord Pedtlc·Llwrcnce, Mllhlltma Gandhi, p. 118. Louis Fischer, The Life of Mnhatma Gandhi, p. 408. An Avatar is the embodiment of the supreme God Vishnu in human flesh, such as Rama and Krishna. Subhas Chandra Bose, The Indian Stru/J.!!le, New York, 1964, pp. 114-5. Which, of course, was a Hindu kingdom. Subhas Chandra Bose, The Indian Stru/J.!!le, op. cit., p. 293. Louis Fischer, The Life of Mt1h1itma Gnndhi, op.cit., p . 507. M. K. Gandhi, An Autohiogrt1phy, Penguin Books, p. 453 . Romain Rolland, Mt1h11tm11 Gt1ndhi, p. 149. Polak, Brailsford, Pethick·Lawrence, Maht1tm11 Gandhi, op.cit., p. 59. Kanji Dwarkadas, Gt1ndhi Though My Dinry Leaves, p. 22 . Romain Rolland, Mah11tmt1 Gandhi, op.cit., p. 67. Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatm11 Gandhi, first published 1949, reprinted 1966, pp. 48-49. Erik H. Erikson, Gandhi's Truth, p. 224. Ibid., p. 225. Ibid ., p. 219.

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THE BACKGROUND 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 4 I. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77.

78. 79.

Ibid., p. 281. Ibid., p. 373. Judith M. Brown, G11nllhi, p. 88. Gandhi, A11tolrio9r11phy, op.cit., p. 196. Ibid., p. 199. Ibid., p. 198. Ibid. , p. 300. Ibid., pp. 244-5. Ibid. , pp. 314-5. Ibid., pp. 134, 324. Jawaharlal Nehru, An A11tobiogr11phy, p. 85. Ibid., p. 260. Subhas Chandra Bose, The Jnlli11n Str1189k, op. cit., pp. 54-55. Ibid., p. 70. Maulana Abu! Kalam Azad, lnllill Wins Freello,,., p. 75. Nehru, M11h11tMll G11nllhi, op.cit., p. 49. Speeches of President Rajendra Pra.sad, p. 216. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, lnllill Wins FreelloM, op.cit., p. 32. Nehru, Mllh11tm11 G11nllhi, op. cit. , p. 59. Ibid. , pp. 44-45. Polak, Brailsford, Pethic· Lawrence, M11h11tm11 G11nllhi, op. cit., p. 207. Nehru, A11tolrio9r11phy, op.cit., p. 490. Nehru, M11h11tM11 G11nllhi, op.cit., p. 71. Ibid., p. 52. Ibid., p. 44. Nehru, A"tolrio9r11phy, op.cit., p. 73. Ibid., p. 288. Gandhi, Autolriogr11phy, op.cit., p. 402. Ibid . Polak, Brailsford, Pethic-Lawrencc, M11h11tm11 G11niihi, op.cit., p. 199. Pyarclal, M11h"""'" Gani/hi, The Lim Ph11Se, Vol. 1, p. 386. Hector Bolitho, Jinnah, p. 153. M. H . Saiyid, Mohammllil Ali Jinn•h, 1962, p. 391. Saiyid had published the first edition of this book in 1945. Romain Rolland, Mahatm• G•nllhi, op.cit., p. 27 . Beverley Nichols, Verllict on lnllia, p. 188. Ibid.,p. 191. Sharif AL Mujahid, Q!.aill·i·Aum Jinnah, p. 233 . Riaz Ahmad, Q!.•iii·i·Aum'J Perception of Is/,.,,. •nil p,./tistan, p. 63. Jamil·UD· Din Ahmad, Speeches """ Writings of Mr Jinnah, Vol. ll, p. 391. Nehru, Mllh•tm• G•niihi, op.cit., 68-69. Erik H. Erikson, G•rulhi'1 Truth, pp. 219-20. The Khilafat question and the Punjab atrocities will be discussed more fully later in their proper context. The Sultan of T urkey was the spiritual successor of the Prophet as Khalifa and the keeper of the holy places. Pirzada, Collectell Worb, Vol. I, op.cit., pp. 408-10. Romain Rolland, Mah"'"'" G11nllhi, op.cit., p. 202 .

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30 80. 81. 82. 83. 84. 85. 86. 87.

88. 89. 90. 91. 92. 93. 94. 95. 96. 97.

98. 99.

QUAID-1-AZAM MOHAMMAD ALI JINNAH Quit India Movement, British Secret Report, edited by P.N. Chopra,

p. 47. Syed Sharifuddin Pirz.ada, Found11tions of P11ltirtan, Vol. II , pp. 305-6. Nehru, Autobiogr11phy, op.cit., p. 72 . Syed Sharifuddin Pinada, Q,uzid-i-AZ4m Moh11m4d Ali Jinnah 11nd P111tist11n, p. 192. Ibid., p. 193. M . H. Saiyid, Moh11mm11d Ali finnllh, op.cit., p. 310. R. Couplaod, Indian Politics, 1936·1942, pp. 90-93. G. Allana, Pllltist11n Movement: Historic Documentt, p. 341. The quotations relating to the negotiations that follow are also taken from this book. For the political questions discussed during these negotiations see, Chapter II. Jamil·UD· Din Ahmad, Speeches and Writings of Mr Jinn11h, Vol. II, op.cit., p. 192. Judith M . Brown, Gandhi, op.cit., p. 320. Polak, Brailsford, Pethic-Lawrence, Mllh11tm11 G11ndhi, op.cit., p. 224. Judith M. Brown, Gandhi, op.cit., p. 321. Ibid., p. 322. Kanji Dwarkadas, G11ndhiji Through My Diary Leaves, pp. 80-81. Maulana Abu! Kalam Azad, India Wins Freedom, op.cit., 35. This change of hean puzzled Kanji Dwarkadas and he gives a full account of it in his G11ndhiji Through My Diary Leaves, op.cit., ar pp. 80·85. lndulal K. Yajnik, Gandhi As I Know Him, p. 16. Erik H . Erikson, Gandhi'1 Truth, op.cit., p. 430. These two episodes will be discussed more fully at an appropriate stage in this narrati\'C.

100. I 01. 102. I 03. l 04.

JOS. 106. 107. 108. 109. 110. 111. 112. 113.

114. 115.

.

For a fuller account of the Lucknow Pact see pp. 101·7. Pirzada, Collected Worlt1, Vol. I, op.cit., p. 386. Kanji Dwarkadas, India'J Fight for Freedom, p. 151. Tilak died on l August 1920, which was rhe very day on which Gandhi launched the non-co-operation movement. Romain Rolland, M11h11tm11 Gandhi, op.cir., p. 30. M. C. Chagla, Roses in December, p. 78. Ibid., p. 81. Gokhale died in February 1915. Pirzada, Collected Worltr, Vol. l, op.cit., p. 128. Ibid. Ibid . Pirz.ada, Found11tions of P11ltfrtan, Vol. II, op.cit., p. 407. So described hy Bose, Tbe Indian StruB!Jle, op.cit., p. 111. From the Eoglish version of Das's speech on the 'necessiry of Hindu Muslim Pact' delivered at the Bengal Provincial Conference in June 1924 , printed ar p. 270 of DeshbRndhu Chitta RRnjan (DRJ/, Brief Sun>ey of Life and Work, Provincial Conferences Speeches, Congen Speeches, published by Rajen Sen and B. K. Sen. Abu! Kalam Azad, Indi" Wins Freedom, op.cit, pp. 23 · 24. Das died on 16 June 1925 at the early age of 55.

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THE BACKGROUND

Das had been given the title of 'Deshabandhu' by the people. It literally means 'friend of the country'. 117. Dittion11ry of N11tion11/ Biogr11phy, Vol. I , edited by S. P. Sen. p. 341. At a meeting of the Council of the All-India Muslim League at Banltipur on 31 December 1912, Jinnah had already pointed out that a system of sclfgovemment on 'colonial lines' was not feasible for India. Pirzada, Collettrd Worts, Vol. 1, op.cit., p. 48. l I 6.

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CHAPTER2

The First Thirty Years Ancestry, Birth and Education On 25 December 1876 Jinnahbhai Poonja and his wife Mithibai1 were blessed with a son who was destined to achieve an independent homeland for Indian Muslims against impossible odds. The baby was small, weak and underweight. However, when his anxious parents had him examined by a doctor he assured them that there was nothing physically or otherwise wrong with the newborn. The child was given the name Mahomedalli Jinnahbhai but on growing up he modified it to read Mohammad Ali Jinnah or M . A. Jinnah. Jinnah was the eldest child of his parents. He was followed by six others, the last but one of whom was a girl named Fatima. She alone figured in his later life. He educated her to be a dentist. After he became a widower, she kept house for him and looked after him till he died. The original home of Jinnah's family was Paneli, a 'village in the Princely State of Gondal in Kathiawar. It was not far from Porbandar where Mohandas Karamchand, the future Mahatma Gandhi, had been born on 2 October 1869. The mother tongue of both was thus Gujrati. Both moreover, belonged to mercantile communities. Jinnah's family were Khojas of the Ismaili sect of Shiahs and Gandhi's were Modh Banias, a subcaste of the Vaisya caste. Poonja and Mithibai had moved from the small village of Panell to the fast-growing port of Karachi in 1874 in search of greater prosperity. Poonja rented 'a modest two-room apartment on Newnham Road in Kha.radar which was the business centre of the city. The apartment was on the first floor and had a spacious balcony of wood and iron above the pavement exposed to the cool sea breeze which came from the west throughout most of the year' .2

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Poonja had not studied English at school but he was good at languages and soon learnt to converse in English. He conducted his business directly with the Managing Director of the British firm, Grahams Trading Company. As his business spread abroad he also learnt how to read and write English because it was the language of the commercial houses he traded with in Hong Kong and England. With Grahams his business was ma!nly in isinglass 3 and gum arabic. 4 The entire trade of Sind, Baluchistan and the Punjab flowed through Karachi, but conventional banking facilities in Karachi at that time were inadequate. Monetary transactions were therefore usually channelled through trustworthy merchant houses. 'Jinnah Poonja and Company' conducted this business too on a large scale. Though Poonja built up a flourishing business, he remained careful with his money and his family lived a simple life. 'He thought of fortune-in the idiom of Paneli-as a capricious deity' and it was on this principle that he ran his family budget. His example made a lasting impression on the minds of his growing children. 5 Jinnah was the favourite child of Mithibai and she believed he would grow up to be a great man. She persuaded her busy and frugal husband to take their eldest son all the way to the shrine (dargah) of Hassan Pir in Ganod, ten miles from Paneli, for the aqiqa ceremony because as a child she had heard stories about the supernatural powers of the Pir. After the aqiqa ceremony, she insisted upon celebrating the occasion at Paneli by inviting the entire village community to a feast. 'On that day in Paneli not a single family lit a fire in their home; their pots and pans rested on the kitchen shelves and all because tiny Mohamed Ali was visiting his ancestral village'. 6 When Jinnah was about six years old, his parents engaged a tutor to teach him Gujrati at home. He proved to be an indifferent student and 'positively loathed arithmetic' .7 This loathing for arith.m etic probably was one of the underlying reasons why he chose law and politics as a career instead of joining the family business which involved keeping accounts. However, he liked games and became the leader of his playmates, in that field. His favourite pastimes were marbles, tops, gilidanda and cricket. His father owned a number of carriages

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QUAI0-1-AZAM MOHAMMAD ALI JINNAH

and had some fine horses in his stables. Jinnah enjoyed riding them in the company of a school friend named Karim Kassim. In December 1887, Jinnah \Vas admitted to the first English standard of the Sind Madressah-tul-Islam which was about half a mile from his home.8 It was run by the Anjuman-i-lslam Karachi and aimed at combining modem Western education with the teaching of the traditional subjects of religion and Arabic and Persian. However, young Jinnah's indifference to formal teaching and preference for games and sports remained unaffected. Hoping that a change of environment might have a salutory tffect on his difficult son, Poonja decided to send him to a school In Bombay. So, when Jinnah's paternal aunt Manbai, who lived in Bombay with her husband, visited Karachi, she took the youngster back with her. Mithibai felt unhappy at the prospect of parting with her beloved firstborn but Manbai who was 'a vivacious person, full of wit, humour and wisdom ' 9 was able to obtain her consent. At Bombay Jinnah joined the Anjuman-i-Islam School and the transfer had the desired effect. 'He passed his fourth Gujrati, qualifying him for first grade English'. 10 But Mithibai's patience soon ran out and upon her insistence Poonja recalled Jinnah to Karachi and once more sent him to the Sind Madressah-tul-Islam. Jinnah left the school in January 1891 to join his father in business. However, he soon got bored because 'everything depended on reading and writing; money received and paid had to be entered into account books'. He told his father that he would rather go back to school than continue in his office. 11 Accordingly he returned to the Sind Madressah-tul-Islam on 9 February 1891 but had to leave it finally on 30 January 1892. The reason for this was that Frederick Leigh Croft, Managing Director of the Karachi office of Graham's Trading Company, had offered to attach young Jinnah to the firm's head office in London for three years as a paid apprentice to learn practical business administration, and Poonja had accepted the invitation hoping the training would equip his son to expand the family business on his return home. But before leaving for England it was considered essential quickly to improve his proficiency in English. It was proposed to achieve

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this by moving him from the Madressah-tul-Islam to the Church Mission School. Also, the misery of Mithibai had to be assuaged. She was shattered by the prospect of being separated from her dearest child for three long years and in particular feared that some English girl might entice her handsome son into marriage if he remained a bachelor. To avoid the possibility of such a family disaster, she made her consent to his going abroad conditional upon his acquiring a spouse before leaving the shores of his motherland. Furthermore, she personally selected the bride. Her choice fell on fourteen year old Emi Bai who came of an Ismaili Khoja family of Panell, distantly related to herself. So in February 1892, before Jinnah started at the Church Mission School, the family journeyed to Panell where the marriage was performed with due pomp and ceremony. Poonja's business at Karachi was· suffering because of his absence. He was therefore anxious to return there along with the newly married couple as soon as possible. But the bride's father flatly refused to let his daughter leave home before the expiry of the customary period of at least one month after marriage. The impasse was unexpectedly resolved by the bold intervention of young Jinnah. Fatima has described the incident in the following words The two families, newly joined in marriage, began to argue, but the differences remained unresolved. During the ensuing discussions Mohamed Ali remained silent, but once he knew that they were no nearer conclusion, he decided to intervene. Without informing my father or mother, he went to see his in-laws. They welcomed him with much cordiality and ceremony. The formalities over, Mohamed Ali said quietly that because of business reasons his father could no longer stay in Paneli; his mother must return with his father and he with them. His bride, he said, he would like to take with him, because he would leave Karachi for Europe soon and would be gone for three years. Perhaps they would like to send their daughter to Karachi in his absence and have her wait three years until his return from England? The following day his in-laws came to sec my father and mother and surprised them by asking when they would like to take Emi Bai with them to Karachi , so that they could make the necessary arrangements. 12

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When Emi Bai first joined the Poonja family she followed the custom of concealing her face with her orni in the presence of her father-in-law. But in deference to her progressive husband's wishes she soon discarded the practice. Immediately after returning to Karachi, Jinnah was enrolled in the Church Mission School and studied there till the end of October. He sailed for England in the first week of November 1892, landing at Southampton three weeks later when be was about a month short of his sixteenth birthday. 13 One of his cousins, Mrs Fatima Gangji Valji, recalled many years later, that when Jinnah bid her farewell her eyes were heavy with tears. He told her, 'Don't be a fool, bai. I will return a great man from England and not only you and the family but the whole country will be proud of me. Would you not be happy then?' 14 During the voyage he was the youngest passenger on his own. An English gentleman was kind to him and engaged in friendly conversation with him every day giving useful tips regarding life in London. When the gentleman disembarked at Marseilles, he left his London address with Jinnah. During Jinnah's three and a half year stay in London, the said Englishman would invariably invite his young shipboard friend to a meal with himself and his family Whenever he came ' home' On a visit. 15 After landing at Southampton, Jinnah took a train to London. There the driver of a .hackney cab guided him to an hotel which was inexpensive but comfortable. He rented a modest room in it. November-at the time of Jinnah's years in London as a student- used to be the gloomiest part of the year. Coal was still the principal fuel for domestic and industrial use and produced depressingly damp and dark fogs. 16 Jinnah was not used to such conditions. Not surprisingly, he found life in London rather depressing. He was not used to such severe cold. He could seldom afford the luxury of a cab and had to walk considerable distances on foot every day in the damp winter. Years later he said to Fatima It was quite trying and tiring. I was lonely, far from home, far from 1ny parents, I was in a new country where life was so different from all I had known in Karachi . Except for some colleagues at Grahams,

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I did not know a soul, and the immensity of London, which had first impressed me, now weighed heavily on me. The severe cold and the dreary drizzle chilled me to the bone. I felt miserable but I steeled myself and with much elfon settled down to take on London on its terms. I began to like it before long. 17 Finding a prolonged stay in the hotel beyond his means, he shifted before long to a one-room apartment at 40 Glazbury Road in West K,ensington. In March 1894 he took up residence as a paying ·guest of one Mrs F. E. Page-Drake at 35 Russell Road, Kensington, and remained there for the rest of his stay in London.18 In later years when he reminisced about London he would say that Mrs Page-Drake was a very kind old lady, with a large family, and that she treated him as if he were her son. She had an attractive daughter who was about the same age as Mohamed Ali. Miss PageDrake liked my brother but he was not the flinatious type and she could not break through his reserve. She would sometimes arrange mixed parties in her mother's house, and among the various games she would organize for her guests was one in which the penalty for a fault was a kiss. Mohamed Ali always counted himself out of this kissing game. 'One Ch.ristmas Eve,' he recalled, 'Miss Page-Drake threw her arms around me as I was standing under some mistletoe, the significance of which I did not then know, and said that I must kiss her. I told her gently that we too had our social rules and the mistletoe kiss was not one of them. She let me go and did not bother me again in this manner. 19 Jinnah began his apprenticeship at Grahams Trading Company on the day after he had arrived in London. The company's office was located at Threadneeclle Street in the heart of the commercial district of the metropolis. 'He was given a small table and a chair in oi,e of the rooms where he sat with a number of officehands learning how business was conducted'. 20 London's rich political and cultural activities beckoned him but his sedentary and boring apprenticeship at Graham's afforded him little leisure to enjoy them. Even before leaving Karachi for London, he had displayed his attraction for the legal profession. He made his first visit to the law courts in Karachi in the company of his father. As soon as he saw an advocate there in gown and bands, he said 'I want to be a barrister'. 'Thus Jinnah's love for law was love at first sight'. 21

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He therefore decided to give up the apprenticeship and to qualify as a barrister instead. Of the four Inns of Court he chose Lincoln's Inn because on the inner side of New Hall's main entrance he saw a fresco depicting the image of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) among the group of lawgivers of the world. 22 It is not surprising that Jinnah should have been influenced in favour of Lincoln's Inn because it had honoured the Prophet. He came from a devout Muslim family and his mother, whom he deeply loved and respected, was a deeply religious lady. Mian Abdul Aziz who was a law student in London during the same years as Jinnah, recalled that Jinnah at that time was 'an active member of the Muslim Society in England' .23 He remained a good Muslim all his life but was too sophisticated ever to be a narrow-minded one. He joined Lincoln's Inn in June 1893 and passed the Bar finals in April 1895. After completing the formality of attending the requisite number of dinners he was called to the Bar a year later. However, he did not leave for India till July 1896. When Poonja learnt from his son that the latter had joined Lincoln's Inn and it would take him three years to qualify as a barrister, he ordered him to return home immediately. Jinnah, however, pleaded to be allowed to complete the course, promising not to ask for any more money and to live as frugally as possible. His father had no option but to reconcile himself to the situation and pray for the best. 24 Living in London had a lasting effect on Jinnah's lifestyle and political philosophy. A few months before sailing home Jinnah petitioned Lincoln's Inn to have his name altered from Mahomed Ali Jinnahbhai to Mahomed Ali Jinnah. The Council of the Inn granted the request on 25 April 1896. However, he had already signed his name simply as M. A. Jinnah on the register of the British Museum in February 1895.25 In later years he usually signed his full name as Mohammad Ali Jinnah. The future ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity reminisced in his presidential address at the Thirtieth Session of the All-India Muslim League at Delhi in April 1943 that he had learnt politics 'at the feet of that great man, Dadabhoy Naoroji' and that it was 'men of the character of that Great Dadabhoy that inspired us with some hope of a fair and equitable adjustment' between Hindus and Muslims.

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Naoroji was born at Bombay on 4 September 1825 in a priestly Parsec family. He was the first Indian to be appointed a professor at the Elphinstone College Bombay in 1850. In 1855 he became a business partner of Cama and Co. and took charge of their London branch but left them in 1862 to start his own business under the name Dadabhai Naoroji & Co. However, he visited India regularly and took a leading part in the politics of the country. One of the founding fathers of the Indian National Congress in 1885, he was elected its president thrice, in 1866, 1893 and 1906. In 1865 he founded the London India Society jointly with W.C. Bonnerjee and continued as its president till 1907 when he finally returned to India. He was respected by all sections of Indian society and affectionately called 'The Grand Old Man of India'. Mahatma Gandhi recalled that when he arrived in London as a student in 1888 I soon found that Indian students had free access to the GOM at all hours of the day. Indeed, he was in the place of father to every one of them, no matter to which province or religion they belonged. He was there to advise and guide them in their difficulties. I have always been a hero-worshipper. And so Dadabhai became real Dada to me. 26

Naoroji stood for election to the British Parliament as a Liberal candidate for Central Finsbury and in July 1892 became the first Indian to enter the House of Commons. In his maiden speech in the House of Commons on 9 August 1892 he acknowledged 'the spirit of British rule, the instinct of British justice and generosity' which had led to an Indian standing 'in this house, becoming a member of the great Imperial Parliament of the British Empire and being able to express his views openly and fearlessly before you'. Replying to the felicitations offered to him at a meeting in London on 23 January 1893 celebrating his election victory, Naoroji expressed sentiments which Jinnah often expressed in years to come We hope to enjoy the same freedom, the same strong institutions which you in this country enjoy. We claim them as our birth - right

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as British subjects. We are either British subjects or British slaves. If we are really British subjects, you are honestly bound to give us every oni: of your institutions as soon as we are prepared to receive them. I have no~ no doubt from my long knowledge of this country that as soon as the British people begin to understand what we are prepared for, they will be ready to give it.27

Indian students had enthusiastically campaigned for Naoroji during the election but Jinnah could not §bare this honour because in July he was still in Karachi. 28 However, he must have participated in the celebratory gathering in January. The general election which took Naoroji to the House of Commons also installed Gladstone at 10 Downing Street to commence his fourth term as prime minister with John Morley as his Irish Secretary. The Liberals thus were very much in evidence in the United l(jngdom during Jinnah's years as a student in London. Jinnah told Dr Ashraf that, during the· tast two years in London his time was 'utilized for further independent studies, for the political career' he already 'had in mind'. Jinnah also said, 'Fortune smiled on me, and I happened to meet several important English Liberals with whose help I came to understand the doctrine of Liberalism. The Liberalism of Lord Morley was then in full sway. I grasped that Liberalism, which became part of my life and thrilled me very much.'29

Jinnah regularly attended the House of Commons as a visitor and subscribed to Hansard. On Sundays he occasionally went to listen to the soap-box orators at Hyde Park Corner and was 'as much amused by their lack of coherence or responsibility as he was impressed by the tolerance of their large or small audiences'.~ He also read in the library of the British Museum to broaden his mind and attended the law courts to familiarize himself with the working of the British system of justice. In the cultural field he was mainly interested in the theatre, especially in Shakespearean plays. So much so that he nearly became a professional actor in London after completing his studies. On 19 March 1947 he gave the following account to Malik Wahedana31

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I used to read out Shakespeare before my friends. Soon the news got around: 'Jinnah reads well.' After I was called to the Bar, I was taken by some friends to the manager of a theatrical company, who asked me to go up to the stage and read out pieces of Shakespeare. I did so. His wife and he were immensely pleased, and immediately offered me a job. I was exultant, and I wrote to my parents craving for their blessings.. I wrote to them that law was a lingering profession where success was so uncertain; a stage career was much better, and it gave me a good start, and that I would now be independent and not bother them with grants of money at all. My father wrote a long letter to me, strongly disapproving of my project; but there was one sentence in his letter which touched me most and which influenced a change in my decision: 'Do not be a traitor to the family.' I went to my employers and conveyed to them that I no longer looked forward to a stage career. They were surprised, and they tried to persuade me, but my mind was made up. According to the terms of the contract I had signed with thc:m, I was to have given them three months notice before quitting. But you know, they were Englishmen, and so they said: 'Well when you have no interest in the stage, why should we keep you, against your wishes, for three months with us? We relieve you now and you can go home.' My stage career, therefore was very short. 32

Miss Fatima Jinnah recalled that, An ambition of his those days was to play the role of Romeo at the Old Vic. Even in the days of most active politicial life, when he returned home tired and late, he would read Shakespeare in bed. Sometimes after dinner he would read aloud his favourite passages, and I still remember that whenever he was reading Shakespeare his voice would be resonant and weU modulated as if he had had experience of the stage."

Thus, the student who had left the shores of India in November 1892 as 'a tall thin boy in a funny long yellow coat'34 bearing the cumbersome name of Mahomed Ali Jinnahbhai returned home as a westernized young man wearing the latest London clothes, enunciating the English language well enough to go on the London stage, imbued with Gladstonian liberalism and signing himself fashionably as M. A. Jinnah.

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The Sad Homecoming and the Hard Road to Success Circumstances outside his control had conspired to make the homecoming a sad one. On the eve of his departure from London he drew three cheques on 15 July 1896. The largest one was in favour of the National Bank of India Limited, Bombay, showing that he was not returning to Karachi but going to Bombay. Let us explain. Soon after his departure for London in 1892, his wife had died. He had not known her for Jong. So it did not shock him as much as his mother's passing away later while giving birth to her youngest child, Bundeh Ali. 'He broke down and wept for hours for his tender mother, whom he loved more than anything else in the world'. 35 Also, following litigation, his father had been declared insolvent in January 1893, and in July of that year had moved with his family to Durga Maula near Bombay.36 Soon after reaching Bombay Jinnah enrolled himself as an Advocate of the Bombay High Court (24 August 1896). He never made a secret of the fact that the opening years of his legal practice had been hard. Everyone involved in a lawsuit wishes to win his case and naturally prefers to engage a counsel who has already made a name for himself. Even under the best of circumstances a newcomer takes time to build up a reputation. That Jinnah was a Muslim was an additional handicap for him because the Bombay Bar was dominated by British, Parsec and Hindu practitioners. Reminiscing about his early days at a party at the Karachi Club on 9 August 1947, Jinn'ah, now the governor-general designate of Pakistan, recalled that at Bombay ' he waited and waited for a long time for a brief. At last he got a brief'. 37 His sister also wrote Even after three years he was not earn ing much and was agonizing over his inability to help his distressed family ... Bur he kept up the appearance of being a busy barrister, daily making the rounds of the courts, making social contacts and frequenting some of the best clubs of Bombay. In his early twenties, my brother was a very attractive

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young man,33 slim and tall, with a commanding personality a sensitive face, and always impeccably dressed.'~

His social contacts paid off. A friend of Jinnah, impressed by his personality and talent, introduced him to John Molesworth MacPherson, acting Advocate General of Bombay, who invited the young barrister to read in his chambers. This concession had never before been granted to an Indian and caused quite a stir in legal circles. Impressed by Jinnah's character and ability, MacPherson passed on some cases to him. When the vacancy of a Presidency Magistrate fell vacant in 1900, Jinnah decided to apply for it thinking it would give him financial stability. He was too proud to seek the intercession of MacPherson. While gazing through the window and wondering how to proceed, he noticc:!d a victoria cab passing by. He impulsively jumped into it and made for the office of Sir Charles Ollivant, Member in charge of the Judicial Department. Sir Charles told him that he had heard about him but would like to have a letter of recommendation from MacPherson who knew him personally. Next morning when Jinnah hesitantly broached the subject with MacPherson he told him that Sir Charles had already spoken to him. At the same time he demanded to know why Jinnah had not told him earlier that he wantr.d to apply for the job. Jinnah explained that he had already felt so obliged for his kindness in letting him read in his chambers that he did not have the heart to ask for another favour. Jinnah was appointed as a Third Presidency Magistrate for three months to fill a temporary vacancy. At the end of that period he was given a further three-month stint in another temporary vacancy. 40 That he had acquitted himself well as a magistrate was obvious from the fact that when his term expired Sir Charles asked him to remain available for a permanent position on a salary. rising to fifteen hundred rupees a month. But Jinnah's period as a magistrate had already earned him a high reputation in legal circles and had inspired sufficient confidence in himself for him to decline the offer stating that his ambition now was to earn fifteen hundred rupees a day.

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Jinnah told his biographer, M . H . Saiyid After two years Sir Charles returned to India having spent some time in England in quiet retirement. He was invited to the Orient Club in Bombay of which I was a member and I attended the function. On seeing me there, he came over and enquired as to how I was doing in law; and when I told him I was earning more than rupees two thousand a month, he congratulated me on my courage, saying that I had done well to refuse his offer.••

His Genius in Advocacy Before long Jinnah climbed to the ,uppermost echelons of the Bombay Bar. In October 1937 he publicly said I am not a poet. I am not an orator. I can only reason. One gentleman here has characterized me as the Mustafa Kamal Pasha of India. I wish I were Mustafa Kamal. In that case I could easily solve the problem of India. But I am not. I have not the army behind me. Therefore, I have got to reason. My strongest and longest gun is this reasoning. 42

Sarojini Naidu diagnosed the secret of his success As a speaker Mohomed Ali Jinnah has the triple assets of a magnetic presence, an impressive delivery, and a voice which while lacking volume has an arresting timbre. But though occasionally he has attained a moment of wholly unconscious and stirring eloquence, he has the cogent force of a brilliant advocate rather than the glowing fervour of a brilliant orator. And it is not on a public platform, but at a round table conference that he finds full scope for his unusual powers of persuasion, luminous exposition, searching argument and impeccable judgement.0

It was in the field of advocacy that Jinnah's genius really lay. His polished delivery, incisive reasoning, carefully adjusted monocle and well drilled gestures were all more suited to the theatre and the courtroom than to an open air mass meeting. It is true that after he had been recognized by his followers as their Quaid-i-Azam (The Supreme Leader) he mesmerized huge public gatherings but that was due mainly to the hero worship aroused by his personal magnetism and universally kn«iwn promises of political salvation.

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He never became nor wanted to become a demagogue because he spoke neither Urdu nor Hindi with facility-and mass audiences in India did not understand English. Nevertheless, during the Pakistan Movement, people came in thousands to his public meetings to sec him, many of them, who knew no English, simply because his message had already reached them through his lieutenants and the Congress newspapers which criticized him. He could be devastating in parliamentary debates which were conducted in English ...

In India there always has been a well-established tradition that the mere sight (danhan) of an exalted person confers merit. Gandhi was a poor public speaker but the Hindu masses flocked to have his darshan because they revered him as a mahatma. After he had completed his studies in London, Gandhi was given a farewell dinner by fellow vegetarians. In trying to thank them for the honour he could utter only one sentence of thanks. He tried to practice as a barrister in Bombay but at the very first appearance in court was so overcome by shyness that when he rose to crossexamine a witness he sat down and made over the case to a colleague. He never again appeared in an Indian court. ' It was only in South Africa that I got over this shyness,' he tells us in his autobiography, 'though I never completely overcame it. It was impossible for me to speak impromptu. I hesitated whenever I had to face a strange audience and avoided making a speech whenever I could. ' 45 The historic Lahore session of the Muslim League in March 1940, which demanded independence for the Muslim majority areas of India, furnishes a good illustration of Jinnah's hold over a mass audience. The Times of India commented on his presidential address in these words Mr Jinnah decided to speak extempore, and no one knew what to expect. Prolonged shouts of 'Zindabad' greeted the slim figure in a black achltan as the President stepped before the microphone. Mr Jinnah's sallow face reflected the triumph of his reception. He spoke for nearly two hours, his voice now deep and trenchant, now light and ironic. Such was the dominance of his personality that, despite the improbability of more than a fraction of his audience understanding English, he held his hearers and played with palpable effect on their emotions.""

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Jinnah's genius as an advocate is better described in the words of those who were best qualified to judge it. The All-India Reporter (1948) Although Mr Jinnah's career as a political leader and as the representative of the successful Muslim Movement for separation in India overshadows all other aspects of his life, a legal journal like this has to take note of the fact that he was a lawyer of outstanding eminence and in his death our country has lost one of its greatest lawyers. As a brilliant advocate, he had few rivals. He was also universally recognized as a man of unimpeachable integrity, and honoured by friend and foe alike for his incorruptibility. 47

M. C. Chagla I joined his chamber and remained with him for about six years. I read his briefS, went with him to court, and listened to his a.rguments. What impressed me most was the lucidity of his thought and expression. There were no obscure spots or ambiguities about what Jinnah had to tell the court. He was straight and forthright, and always left a strong impression whether his case was intrinsically good or bad. I remember sometimes at a conference he would tell the solicitor that his case was hopeless, but when he went to court he fought like a tiger, and almost made me believe that he had changed his opinion. Whenever I talked to him afterwards about it, he \\'Ould say that it was the duty of an advocate, however bad the case might be, to do his best for his client. 48

A 'veteran Muslim barrister' of Bombay recalled in an interview with Hector Bolitho One must realize that when he began to practise, he was the solitary Muslim barrister of the time: there may have been one or two others, but they did not amount to a row of pins. This was in a profession made up mostly of Hindus and Parsecs. Perhaps they were over· critical of a Muslim- who came from business stock-setting up such a standard of industry. There was no pleasure in Jinnah's life: there were no interests beyond his work. He laboured at his briefs, day and night. I can see him, now, slim as a reed, always frowning, always in a hurry. T here was never a whisper of gossip about his private habits. He was a hard-working, celibate, and not very gracious young man. Much too serious to attract friends . A figure like that invites criticism, especially in the lazy East, where we find it easier to forgive a man for his faults than for his virtues.••

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Another advocate said, 'When he [Jinnah] stood up in courts, slowly looking towards the judge, placing his monocle in his eye- with the sense of timing you would expect from an actorhe became omnipotent. Yes, that is the word--omnipotent•.so Jinnah's integrity was also legendary. The 'veteran Muslim Barrister' already quoted above related also the following story to Bolitho There was a well-known businessman, Haji Abdul Karim, who had to appear in Court on a serious charge. He went to Jinnah and asked him how much it would cost to take up the case. Jinnah answered bluntly, 'Five hundred rupees a day.' The businessman was cautious and he asked, 'How long will the case go on? I have five thousand rupees with me. Will you accept this to cover the whole of your fees?' Jinnah answered, 'I am not prepared to accept this amount. Five hundred rupees day is my fee, and you must engage me on these terms or find another lawyer.' Abdul Karim accepted the terms, and Jinnah won the case, in three days. He accepted his fee of fifteen hundred rupees with good grace."

Yet another advocate recalled Always, with Jinnah, one comes back to his honesty. Once when a client was referred to him, the solicitor mentioned that the man had limited money with which to fight the suit. Nevertheless, Jinnah took it up. He lost-but he still had faith in the case and he said that it should be taken to the Appeal Court. The solicitor again mentioned that his client had no money. Jinnah pressed him to defray certain of the appeal expenses out of his own pocket, and promised to fight the case without any fee for himself. This time, he won; but when the solicitor offered him a fee Jinnah refused- arguing that he had accepted the case on the condition that there was no fee.~ 2

With financial worries behind him, Jinnah moved into a better apartment, began to support his family and in particular bore the educational expenses of his brothers and sisters. He got Fatima admitted to the Bandra Convent School in Bombay. Thereafter, she moved to the Dental School of the Bombay University. Jinnah visited her on Sundays and took her for carriage drives. He also gave up his membership in the Khoja Ismaili Sect of Shiahs into

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which he had been born and which accepts the Aga Khan as their spiritual leader and joined instead the Khoja sect of Asna Asharis who too are Shiahs but recognize no religious head.

Entrance into Politics One of Jinnah's own statements tell us when he embarked upon a political career. On 13 August 1919 he appeared as a representative of the Muslim League before the Joint Select Committee constituted to suggest how to bring about progressive realization of a responsible government in India. Montagu, one of the members, asked him, 'How Jong have you been in public life, Mr Jinnah?' He replied, 'Since I was twenty-one' .53 That takes us back to 1897 when he had freshly arrived in Bombay from London. Though Montagu used the broad term 'public life', the Joint Select Committee was considering a purely political question and Jinnah was speaking as the representative of a political party. There can, therefore, be no doubt but that what Montagu was asking Jinnah was how long he had been in politics. But the Muslim League leader also made a second statement on the subject. At the Annual Dinner of the Old Boys' Association of the Osmania University on 28 September 1939, he informed the gathering, 'l have been in practical politics for over a quarter of a century,' 54 which means since about 1914. Why did he give 1897 as the commencing date in one case and 1914 in the other? What Jinnah meant by the first statement was that he had entered into politics as a beginner as soon as he returned to Bombay from London. Having taken a keen interest in politics as a student abroad, it was but natural that directly on returning home he should have begun personally to play the game. He could not very well start at the top; he had to graduate from the civic and provincial level. His second statement that he had been in 'practical politics' since 1914 meant that from that time he had begun to play a constructive role at the highest level. He had been an increasingly important member of the Congress Parry since his first appearance at its annual session in 1906. In October 1913 he was warmly

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welcomed into the ranks of the Muslim League as well. This unique position of being a respected member of both the principal political parties of the country launched him on his celebrated role of ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity. To get back to 1897. From that year he began to attend the meetings of the Anjuman·i· lslam of Bombay of which Badruddin Tyabji 55 was the president. He was elected as a member of the Bombay Corporation in March 1904 but resigned two years later. In May 1905, he was nominated by the Bombay Presidency Association to be a member of the delegation to plead the Indian case before the British electorate. His name was endorsed by the Provincial Congress but it was blocked by Tilak on the ground that he was too young and inexperienced.

Notes 1.

2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. l l. 12. 13. 14. IS . 16. 17. I 8. 19.

This name is taken from Fatima Jinnah's article 'A Sister's Recollections', in P1'i'ist1'n, P1'ft tintl Present, published in 1976 in commemoration of the centenary of the binh of the Founder of Pakistan. Fatima Jinnah, 'A Sister's Recollections', op.cit., p. 42. A very pure gelatine prepared from the air bladders of sturgeons and o ther fishes and used specially in jellies and glue. A water-soluble gum obtained from several acacias and used specially in the manufacture of adhesives and in pharmacy. Fatima Jinnah, 'A Sister's Recollections', op.cit ., p. 43. Ibid., p. 43. Ibid ., 'My father wanted him to be good at mathematics, as accounts were the baclc· bonc of business' . Fatima Jinnah, My Broth,,., p. 57. Riaz Ahmad, QJ.tiitl·i ·A.um Moh""'"'"" Ali Jinntih, The Form1'tive Yetirs, p. 26. Fatima Jinnah, 'A Sister's Recollections', op.cit. , p. 43. Ibid., p. 44. Riaz Ahmad, The Form1'ti•t Tears, op.cit., pp. 28-29 . Fatima Jinnah, 'A Sister's Recollections', op.cit., p. 44. In stating that Jinnah left Karachi for London in the first week of November 1892, we have followed Riaz Ahmad, The Formative Tean, op.cit., p. 32. Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada, Some Aipects ofQJ.aitl·i·Aum's Life, p. 9 . This story is related by Fatima Jinnah but she docs not mentio n the name of the Englishman who befriended her brother. Popularly called 'Pea-soupers'. Fatima Jinnah, 'A Sister's Recollections', op.cit ., p. 45 . Riaz Ahmad, The Formati•t Tears, op.cit., p. 35. Fatima Jinnah, 'A Sister's Recollections', op.cit. , p. 46.

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20. Ibid., p . 45 . Aspects ofQJ411i,/-i·A:A•'1 Life, op.cit., p . 9. 21. Pirzada, 22. In an address to the Karachi Bas Association in 1947, Jinnah rtcalled, 'l joined Lincoln's Inn because there, on the ma.in entrance, the name of the Prophet was included in the list of the great lawgivers of the world'. Bolitho, /ir,,1ah, op.cit., p. 9 . His memory had obviously tricked him into believing that it was the name of the Prophet and not a fresco depicting his image that he had seen. 23. Jasnil-UD-Din Ahmad, Q!'11iil-i ·A:A• 111 See,. by his C11,.tt•por11..U1, p. 81. 24. Fatima Jinnah, 'A Sister's R.:collections', op.cit., p. 45 . 25. Riaz Ahmad, Tbe Fo,.,,,11ti•e TeRn, op.cit., p. 44. 26. R. P. Masani, D11,/11bahi N11oroji, p . 7. 27. Ibid., p. 284 . 28. Riaz Ahmad is quite right in pointing out that 'Jinnah had not taken pan in Naoroji's election', The For,..11ti•e Te11n, op.cit., p. 36. As alrtady stated, Jinnah found London cold and wet and depressing when he first arrived there. This is consistent with weather in November. Naoroji had been elected in July. 29. Hector Bolitho, ]i,.nah, op.cit., p. 9 . 30. Fatima Jinnah, 'A Sister's R.:collections', op.cit., p . 46. 31. A writer and for some time a member of the Indian diplomatic service. 32. Pirzada, Some Alpecu of Q!'Ri,/·i·A:Am'1 Lift, op.cit., p. 11. 33. Fatima Jinnah, 'A Sister's R.:coUections', op.cit., p . 47. 34. Sarojini Naidu , Mohome,/ Ali Ji,.nah, A" Amb"""""" of u,.;ty, p. 3. 35. Fatima Jinnah, 'A Sister's Recollections', op.cit., p . 46. 36. Riaz Ahmad, The Fo,.,,,RtiPC r ...,.,., op.cit., pp. 32-33. 37. Qua.id·i·Azam, Mahomed Ali Jinnah, Speethes 111 Go•emor·Gmeral of P11/tist11,., p. 4 . 38. Even in his maturer yc...rs, Jinnah was strikingly handsome. 'Lady WaveU said of him, ~Mr Jinnah was one of the handsomest men I have ever seen; he combined the clear-cut almost Grecian, features of the West with Oriental grace and movement".' H. Bolitho, /i,.,.ah, op.cit., p. 213. 39. Fatima Jinnah, 'A Sister's Recollections', op.cit., p. 47. 40. This account has been taken from M. H. Salyid, Moh""'"'"" Ali Ji,.n11h, 1965, pp. 6 ·7. Saiyid was Jinnah's private secretary from 1940-44. 41. Ibid ., p. 8. 42. Wahced Ahmad ed., Q!'Ri,/-i -A:Am Moh""'"'"" Ali Jinn11h, Tbe Nation's Voiu (March 1935-M,.rch 1940) p . 188. 43. Sarojini Naidu, An Amb"1SRdor of Unity, op.cit. , p . 16. 44. Fatima Jinnah, 'A Sister's Recollections', op.cit., p. 46. 45. M. K. Gandhi , An AutobiogrRphy, p . 72. 46. Pirzada, Found11tions of PRhst11n 11, p. 327. 47. Pirzada, Sbme Alpecu of Q!'4id·i·AZ4m's Lift, op.cit., p. 41. 48. M. C. Chagla, Roses in December, op.cit., p . 54. 49. H. Bolitho, /inn11h, op.cit., p. 19. Bolitho wrote his book in 1954 when many persons who knew Jinnah personally in his working years were still alive and the biographer could interview them. 50. Ibid ., p. 18.

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Ibid., pp. 20-21. Ibid., pp. 18-19. Pirzada, Collectetl Woris, Vol. I, op.cit., p. 326. Waheed Ahmad, Q1111itl·i·AuM Moh11Mmlltl Ali ]in,.,.h, op.cit., p. 390. Tyabji was a leading barrister of Bombay and became a judge of the Bombay High Coun. He presided over the annual session of the Indian National Congress in 1887.

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CHAPTER 3

The Quaid-i-Azam's Character and Political Style 1 The Quaid-i-Azam appeared on the all-India political stage for the first time in December 19062 when he attended the annual session of the Indian National Congress at Calcutta. Before we discuss his role from that landmark onwards, it would be helpful t o describe the salient features of his character and political style which moulded his course.

Integrity H is sartorial fastidiousness which everyone noticed immediately was nothing but an apparent symbol of the fastidiousness of his entire make-up. Nanji Jafar, who had been at school with Jinnah recalled that one morning when he was playing in the street, Jinnah then about fourt een, came up to him and said, 'Don't play marbles in the dust; it spoils your clothes and dirties your hands. We must stand up and play crickct.' 3 The governing feature of his character was utter integrity. This was recognized by opponent and friend alike. After the failure of their historic September 1944 talks for a settlement, Gandhi said that 'he had the highest regard for Jinnah's single-mindedness, his great ability and integrity which nothing could buy' .4 When standing for election to the Central Legislative Assembly as an independent candidate in 1923, he said in his election manifesto Of one thing I can assure you, that the popular cause and the welfare of I ndia will be my keynote and the: guiding principle in the future as, I hope, it has bc:c:n in the past. I have no desire to seek any post or position or title from the Government. My sole object is to serve the cause of the country as best as I can. 5

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During the First Session of the Round Table Conference in London (November 1930-January 1931), Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald tried to influence Jinnah. He ...sent for Jinnah and told him that in the new order of things that would come in India, the British Prime Minister would have to look for prominent Indians to take up the governorships of provinces, obviously implying that Jinnah would have an excellent chance if he proved to be a good boy. Jinnah asked MacDonald if this was an attempt to bribe him to get his support on the British Government's compromise suggestion, particularly Commercial safeguards.•

One of his unusual practices was that he did not give large parties for his followers. His own explanation for this was I do not like to approach people through their stomachs. I only want to be judged on my merits and actions. Tea and dinner parties arc given to dissuade the people from looking at the shortcomings of their leaders but view them only from behind the screen of social charm. This puts difficulties in the way of work. Some people including my loyal colleagues complain of this attitude on my part. They do not say anything openly to my face but think in their heart of hearts that I am unsocial. Some even think that I am stingy and do not like to spend money on my friends and colleagues. But the truth is as I have told you, that the giving of parties is a kind of bribery in return for which people's support is obtained. I thoroughly detest it. 7

Indeed, he would firmly tell his followers that he preferred defeat to winning elections by adopting dishonest and corrupt methods. 8 Most politicians go out of their way to curry favour with the Press; Jinnah was apt to go out of his way to tell the Press in so many words that he was indifferent to its opinion of him. This was illustrated by his letter published in The Times of India on 10 June 1915. It related to the difference of opinion between the members of the Muslim League on the question whether to hold the next annual session of the League at Bombay at the same time as the annual session of the Indian National Congress. Jinnah was the moving spirit behind those who favoured the proposal. The Times had sided with those who had opposed the idea. In his letter to the newspaper, Jinnah pointed out 'a series of misrepresentations' in its columns and also protested against its attitude towards the proposal. And at the end he made clear

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that 'I for one, Sir, whatever may have been my ambition 1n life, never aspired to get your increased respect for myself' .9

.

Independence of India, His Lifelong Passion Jinnah could truthfully claim that he had 'never accepted the idea in the whole of my life that we should be under any foreign domination in this country'. 10 This was, of course, sharply different from the history of Gandhi's attitude toward British imperialism. Gandhi assisted the British in the Boer War and the Zulu Rebellion in South Africa and worked as a recruiting officer during World War I. At a dinner in April 1915 he explained his conduct in these words, 'I discovered that the British Empire had certain ideals With which I have fallen in love and one of these ideals is that every subject of the British Empire has the freest scope possible for his energy and honour and whatever he thinks is due to his conscience'. 11 Recalling Gandhi's South African days, his biographer tells us that Gandhi 'vied with Englishmen in .. .loyalty to the throne, taught his children to sing with him the National Anthem in the correct English style and never missed an opportunity to give public expression to his loyalty to the throne' . 12 Adopting the Khilafat and the Punjab atrocities as his causes, the erstwhile ultra-loyalist Mahatma in 1920 suddenly turned into a non -cooperating revolutionary and promised to turn out the British within one year. 13 And during World War II he staged an open rebellion under the slogan 'Quit India'. Such extreme swings of policy were alien to the Quaid's even temperament. He sympathized with the allies in both World Wars and never hindered the flow of India's tremendous help in men and material. At the same time he made his enthusiastic support conditional on his country being treated as an equal member of the family of nations comprising the British Empire.

His Sang-froid Beverley Nichols commented on the Quaid-i-Azam's sang-froid in these words: ' He had a mind as subtle as Gandhi's but whereas

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Gandhi met the sweltering heat of Bombay in a cotton shift, Jinnah was invariably dressed in a lounge suit with a stiff white collar and monocle dangling over his waist-coat. And of the two men he looked considerably cooler. ' 14 Two encounters, one of Gandhi with Viceroy Wavell, and the other of Jinnah with Viceroy Mountbatten, will illustrate the point. The Gandhi-Wavell interview took place on 27 August 1946. Wavell wished Congress to state clearly that the grouping of provinces in the constitution-making body proposed by the Cabinet Mission was compulsory. In the course of the argument Gandhi thumped the table and said, 'If India wants her blood bath she shall have it'. Wavell told him that he was shocked to hear such words from him. 15 Mountbatten's verbal onslaught on Jinnah took place in July 1947 after Jinnah had informed him that he himself would be the first governor-general of Pakistan. India had already nominated Mountbatten as her governor-general and Mountbatten had taken it for granted that Pakistan would follow suit. 'Mountbatten was wounded in his tenderest spot: his vanity was hurt and his pride affronted'. One day when the Quaid was working on the Indian Independence Bill with Liaquat Ali Khan and Chaudhri Muhammed Ali in a room in the Viceroy's House, Mountbatten burst into the room and 'belaboured the Quaid-i-Azam with arguments, appeals and bluster ... The responsibility for the immeasurable loss to Pakistan would rest on the shoulders of Jinnah ... He was sure that the verdict of history would uphold him and go against Jinnah ... Jinnah bore this onslaught with great dignity and patience' and did not lose his cool. He explained that in assuming the governor-generalship of his newly independent country 'he had not been moved by any personal considerations but had objectively taken only the interest of his people into account' .1 6

His Constitutionalism Given his orderly disposition, it is not surprising that Jinnah wished to win independence for his motherland by constitutional means. In the course of his presidential address at the Ninth Session of the All-India Muslim League at Luckno\v on 30-31 December 1916 he said

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If we turn to history, we find that in the past, only such people have been declared fit for freedom who fought for it and attained it. We arc living in different times. Peace has its victories. We are fighting and can only fight constitutional battlcs. 17 Even if a man did take pan in agitation, it did not mean that he wanted to pull down the government. 11

What the situation demanded was that Hindus and Muslims should 'stand united and use every constitutional and legitimate means' to effect the 'transfer of power from the bureaucracy to democracy ... the voice of the three hundred million people vibrating throughout the length and breadth of the country, will produce a force which no power on earth can resist'. 19 He was all for carrying the constitutional battle into the legislature. When there was a difference of opinion in the country in 1923 on the question of Council entry, Jinnah said, 'I, for one am more than ever convinced that the proper course for us is to send our representatives to the Assembly'. 20 Though by force of argument and personality the Quaid usually was able to get his way in Muslim League meetings, he never departed from the procedure of obtaining the approval of the League Working Committee or Council before committing himself on matters of importance. He explained at a Council meeting that the Working Committee corresponded to a Cabinet and the Council to a Parliament. If the Council disapproved the decision of the Working Committee the members of the latter would have to resign. 21 He was against being elected president of the Muslim League for life. At the Muslim Council meeting at New Delhi on 24 February 1941 he was re-elected president for another year. When one member suggested that the Quaid be elected president for life, the latter said, 'Let me come to you at the end of every year and seek your vote and your confidence. Let your president be on his good behaviour. I am definitely opposed to your electing a life president.'22 At another time he told the Muslim League Workers, 'My power is derived from you- the masses. .. Leaders are made by you. If they do not act honestly, do not make them the leaders. You can do that to me as well.' And he cited the example of Churchill who had been 'thrown into the wilderness' by the electorate despite having been the most successful war leader. 23

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He also believed that 'an opposition party or parties are good correctives for any party which is in power'. 24 He emphasized that pure majority rule after the fashion of the British Parliamentary System was not suitable for India because it would mean unbroken Hindu domination. It \Vas necessary for the rights of the minorities to be constitutionally safeguarded. But he disfavoured communal electorates as one of the safeguards. However, he accepted the overwhelming support of fellow Muslims for separate electorates as a mandate and as their representative successfully pleaded for their acceptance by the Hindus in the Lucknow Pact. He also recognized the right of others to oppose and criticize him. A well-known example of this was the intemperate tirade against him at the Allahabad session of the Muslim League in April 1942. A resolution giving full power to Jinnah to take any action he might consider necessary in furtherance of the objects of the Muslims was carried in the open session with the single dissenting vote of Maulana Hasrat Mohani. During his speech Mohani ... went to the extent of casting reflections on Mr Jinnah's judgement and even intentions. He even expressed the suspicion that Mr Jinnah would not uphold the Muslim League ideal and would accept something less than an independent Pakistan. The whole gathering was soon up on its feet ... Pandemonium raged all round .

But Jinnah repeatedly called for order and asked the audience to give a patient hearing to the Maulana and 'kept smiling all the time' .15 It is unthinkable that the circumspect Quaid would ever make a martial proclamation like that made by the professedly pacific Mahatma when the Ramgarh Congress in the spring of 1940 authorized him to initiate a civil disobedience campaign. Though Gandhi had not been even an ordinary member of the Congress party since 1934, he accepted the post of 'General' and said, 'When we march as an army, we are no longer a democracy. As soldiers we have got to take orders from the General and obey him implicitly. His word must be law. I am your General. ' 16 While the Congress 'General' and his lieutenants got themselves locked up in jail for their rebellious conduct during the war, Jinnah reaped the benefit of his constitutionalism and remained

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free to consolidate the power of the Muslim League unhindered by the formidable Congress machine.

His Secular Politics By purposely introducing religion into politics, Gandhi, the apostle of non-violence, inflamed religious feelings which intensified violent clashes between the two major communities of the country. Ambedkar summed up the record of Hindu-Muslim relationship from 192027 to 1940 as, 'twenty years of civil war between the Hindus and the Muslims in India, interrupted by brief intervals of armed peace'. 28 Jinnah, on the other hand, tried to build up Hindu-Muslim amity by political give and take and kept religion out of politics till the experience of Hindu rule in the Congress provinces ( 19 3739) drove him to the conclusion that if the Muslims wished to practice their religion and culture freely they would have to achieve an independent homeland of their own. During his speech in the Central Legislative Assembly on 7 February 1935 he said that 'religion should not be allowed to come into politics ... Religion is merely a matter between man and God.' 29 Addressing the Jamiat-ul- Ulema Conference at Delhi in April 1936 he argued that the question of constitutional safeguards for the Muslims 'was not a religious question, but was purely a political problem'. 30 Later the same year at the All-India Muslim League Session at Bombay in December 1936 he pointed out that in a system of government by majority rule in India the Muslims would be a minority community. Therefore, 'it was not a religious question. It was a question whether they should not have sufficient safeguards which would inspire confidence in them, so that they too could wholeheartedly join with the sister communities in the march for freedom.'31 That Jinnah considered safeguards for minorities a basic political question and not a concession due only to the Muslims on religious grounds is further illustrated by his attitude to the Hindu Scheduled Castes (also called Untouchables or Depressed Classes). He told the Legislative Assembly on 7 February 1935 that at the Round Table Conference he had 'pleaded more for Depressed Classes before Mahatma Gandhi than I did for the Mussulmans'. 32

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During his presidential address at the All-India Muslim League session at Delhi in 1943 he said, 'in the name of humanity I care more for them [the Untouchables] than for Mussulmans'. 33 And at the Lahore Muslim League Conference on 31 July 1944 he could truthfully claim that at no time had he neglected the interests of the Scheduled Castes and promised that he would 'always stand for their protection and safeguard in any future scheme of constitution'. 34 Interestingly, in a statement issued on 25 February 1942, Ambedkar, die Scheduled Caste leader complained that, 'The Congress choose to forget that Hinduism is a political ideology of the same character as the Fascist or Nazi ideology ... This is not the point of view of Muslims alone. It is also the point of view of the Depressed Classes.' 35 By following secular politics for as long as he possibly could, Jinnah proved himself a much more faithful disciple of Naoroji and Gokhale than Gandhi who too professed to be a disciple of theirs.

Reserved but Correct In personal relations, Jinnah was reserved. His sad home-coming from England and first briefless years had stung his proud and self-respecting nature. The failure of his marriage and the early death of his wife created a further inner sadness. But he was always courteous and correct. He had no time for idle gossip and empty pleasantries but was always willing to engage in meaningful conversation with young and old. JamilUD-Din who knew the Quaid well from his student days states that he was able to interview him freely. 'It is difficult and sometimes impossible to seek interviews with lesser men, but never so with him'. It was at private meetings 'that one discovered another aspect of this greatness-as a conversationalist': He staned slowly at first. You were at once bewitched by the musical ring of his cultured voice, the beauty of his intonation, and the easy flow of his expression. Words fell from his lips like beautifully-formed pearls and rubies and one found it difficult to gather them all in one's lap. As he got into stride you were moved by the intensity of his

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intellecrual passion; the emotiona.1 fervour was not much in evidence as he always kept his emotions in check. While hearing the Quaid-iAzam one could realize what it was to be 'possessed' of a great 'idea'. Every fibre of his being seemed to vibrate with the 'Pakistan idea'. His passion was infectious. Whether you agreed with him or not you could not escape this infection. If you agreed you were filled with zeal to contribute your mite towards its realization; if you did not, you were haunted by it.l•

Dr Sir C. R- Reddy, a prominent non-Brahmin leader of South India, depicted Jinnah's no-nonsense personality in these terms He is the pride of India and not the private possession of the Muslims ... A straight thinker, straight fighter and strong hitter, he is anything but a subtlety shop and in fact suspicious of subtle politicians whose texts read one way and whose oft-repeated commentaries in other and different ways according to exigencies. In dignity, racial and personal, he is an example and standard-bearer. He abhors the oily pose of mock modesty and ultra-humility ... The spiritual drive of the political missionary is his, for he wants nothing for himself and everything for his country on an equitable basis of distribution as between its component elements... The great root good he has done to India is saving our politics from being clouded over, confused and confounded by metaphysics and moonshine."

The Quaid did not wear his heart on his sleeve but he was not Jacking in inner sensitiveness. He was seen to be moved to tears at least on three occasions. The first occasion was after his amendments to the Nehru Report had been rejected at Calcutta in December 1928 by the All-Parties Conference. Jamshed Nusserwanjec, a Parsec, who saw him off at the railway station on the following morning stated that 'he had tears in his eyes'.38 The next occasion was the burial of his wife Runic on 22 February 1929: 'As Ruttie's body was being lowered into the grave' wrote eye witness Kanji Dwarkadas, 'Jinnah, as the nearest relative was the first to throw the earth on the grave and he broke down suddenly and sobbed and wept like a child for minutes together'.39 The last occasion was January 1948, after Partition, when he went to see an encampment of Hindus who had staved on 1n

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Pakistan. 'When he saw their misery, he wept. I [Nusserwanjee] saw tears on his cheeks. ' 40 Sarojini Naidu painted the following eloquent pen-portrait of Jinnah Never was there a nature whose outer qualities provided so complete an antithesis of its inner worth. Tall and stately, but thin to the point of emaciation, languid and luxurious of habit, Mohomed Ali Jinnah's attenuated form is the deceptive sheathe of a spirit of exceptional vitality and endurance. Somewhat formal and fastidious, and a little aloof and imperious of manner, the calm hauteur of his accustomed reserve but masks for those who know him, a naive and eager humanity, an intuition quick and tender as a woman's, a humour gay and winning as a child's-pre-eminently rational and practical, discreet and dispassionate in his estimate and acceptance of life, the obvious sanity and serenity of his worldly wisdom effectually disguise a shy and splendid idealism which is of the very essence of the man.41

The Quaid-i-Azam was always deeply admired and respected for his outstanding integrity and competence. After the movement for the Muslim homeland promised by him intensified and became charged with emotion, he became Pakistan personified and everyone who loved Pakistan loved Jinnah too.

Notes l. 2.

3. 4.

5. 6.

7.

8. 9. I 0.

For Jinnah's genius in advocacy 1tt, Chapter 2. Speculation that he may have attended any annual session of the Congress prior to 1906 is beside the point. He himself said quite clearly that he 'first attended the annual session of the Congress' in 1906. Pirzada, CA/Je